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California's Deepening Housing Crisis
California continues to experience very high rates of population growth and further tightening of its housing markets. Even encompassing the recession of the early 1990s, California's population grew by an average approximating 450,000 people annually and is projected to gain around 600,000 annually over the next decade. Housing production has not kept pace with the State's housing needs particularly in the coastal metropolitan areas and housing need has worsened, especially for renter households and low-income owner households throughout the State.
August housing starts in metropolitan areas
August 2006
Led by a surge in multifamily permits, August housing starts climbed by 14 percent compared to July, the California Building Industry Association announced Sept. 28, 2006.
In August, building permits were pulled for 7,838 single-family homes statewide, down 5.9 percent from the previous month, while multifamily housing starts — condos and apartments — totaled 5,290, up 68.1 percent from the previous month. Overall for the month, builders pulled permits for 13,128 homes, condos and apartments, according to statistics compiled by the Burbank-based Construction Industry Research Board.
Inclusionary Zoning - A public policy failure
 Housing Supply and Affordability: Do Affordability Mandates Work? April 2004 San Jose State University professors Benjamin Powell, Ph. D and Edward Stringham, Ph. D conducted research to assess inclusionary zoning in the San Francisco Bay Area. Inclusionary zoning has been particularly prevalent in the Bay Area, growing to more than 107 communities in 2003. It is the primary policy to attenuate affordable housing woes by local governments. Powell and Stringham provide extensive data exemplifying the detrimental effects of inclusionary zoning on housing prices and supply. Reason Public Policy Institute published this report in April 2004.
Affordable Housing in Monterey County
 Analyzing the General Plan Update and Applied Development Economics Report August 2004 Monterey County is in the process of updating its General Plan. The old proposed General Plan Update (GPU) had a number of problems and was voted down by the Board of Supervisors in May 2004. Now that Monterey County has an opportunity to draft a new General Plan Update, it can learn from the mistakes in previous work. This report analyzes the old proposed General Plan Update and the Economic Impact Analysis (EIA) conducted by Applied Development Economics, Inc. We find that the economic analysis for the county is based on false premises and faulty economic logic. The future General Plan Update should seek to avoid the mistakes in the old proposed GPU and the EIA.
Do Affordable Housing Mandates Work?
 Evidence from Los Angeles County and Orange County
June 2004
California and many urban areas nationwide face a housing affordability crisis. New housing production has chronically failed to meet housing needs, causing housing prices to escalate. Faced with demands to "do something" about the housing affordability crisis, many local governments have turned to "inclusionary zoning" ordinances in which they mandate that developers sell a certain percentage of the homes they build at below-market prices to make them affordable for people with lower incomes.
California was an early leader in the adoption of inclusionary zoning, and its use there has grown rapidly. Between 1990 and 2003, the number of California communities with inclusionary zoning more than tripled - from 29 to 107 communities - meaning about 20 percent of California communities now have inclusionary zoning.
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