New Study Details San Diego Housing Crisis

Jul 14, 2017

San Diego can expect to see an exodus of seniors and families over the next three years due to the severity of the local housing market, according to a new report from the Regional Chamber of Commerce.

“We’ve got a critical shortage right now with only about 50 percent of the stock that we need being built, and it all goes back to government and regulations,” said Jerry Sanders, the Chamber’s President and CEO, in an interview with KPBS. “We’re losing young folks and seniors at a fairly rapid pace out of San Diego. We’re seeing a much larger percentage of San Diegans paying well over 30 percent of their income for housing.”

The new report, titled “The Housing Scorecard,” measured new home construction in the 18 cities within San Diego County and concluded that new housing is being aimed at prospective buyers with above-average incomes. Several cities within the region failed to see any new home construction during the past six years for residents in the low- to moderate-income brackets. The median price for a single-family home in San Diego County was $612,000 in May, while the average cost of a two-bedroom rental was more than $2,200 a month.

“This is an economic crisis right now,” said Sean Karafin, the Chamber’s Vice President of Public Policy and Economic Research, and the author of the report. “Our employers consistently tell us at the Chamber that they can’t retain or hire good talent.”

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Phil Hall

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Jul 14, 2017

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