Which San Diego County Cities Are Building New Housing?

Writing in Voice of San Diego, Will Huntsberry outlines which San Diego County cities are building the most housing — and which are falling short.

“Our analysis looked at the number of new homes — from apartments and accessory dwelling units to single-family homes — permitted across San Diego County between 2018 and the end of 2024,” Huntsberry explains.

The city of San Diego, the county’s largest, permitted the largest raw number. But Chula Vista permitted the most new housing units per capita, at 38 new units for every 1,000 people. On the low end, El Cajon permitted just 9.9 homes for every 1,000 residents.

According to Huntsberry, Chula Vista has more open space available for building than other parts of the county. And, “unlike most other cities, also had a large diversity of different types of housing. Roughly, 56 percent of homes were part of apartment buildings with five or more units. Roughly 9 percent were ADU’s and 24 percent were single-family homes.”

Some cities, like Encinitas, were forced to change their zoning codes to comply with state housing mandates in spite of local NIMBY opposition to denser construction. Others, like Poway and El Cajon, continue resisting building new housing.

New housing that has been built is largely not in the affordable range: “Roughly 78 percent of all new homes were priced for people with “above moderate” income, as defined by state officials.”