California's housing goals pull further out of reach

California communities are approving residential building permits at a slower rate than they did last year, a sign Gov. Gavin Newsom faces an even bigger hurdle to reach his housing goals than when he took office in January. In the first five months of 2019, cities and counties issued permits for an average of 111,000 residential building units per month, according to data released Friday by the California Department of Finance. That’s a decrease of 12.2 percent from the same period in 2018.

The news is mostly bad for California governor Gavin Newsom's plan to build 3.5 million new housing units by 2025, as high land costs, a labor shortage, the effects of President Trump's tax cuts, and virulent NIMBYism threaten to stamp out regulatory reforms enacted over recent years. 

“These days you see most interest in the luxury apartments in places like downtown San Francisco, because otherwise the rents don’t pay for the high cost of construction,” Matt Schwartz, president and CEO of the California Housing Partnership, told The Sacramento Bee, adding, “Yes, rent has gone up, but construction costs have gone up two to three times as much.”

Antonio Pacheco via Archinect - News http://bit.ly/2SFjSJS