California’s Governor-elect Gavin Newsom wants to build a lot more new homes in the state in the next seven years — a lot more.
Newsom said, according to LA Curbed, that as governor he would oversee construction of 3.5 million new units of housing in the state by 2025, amounting to roughly 500,000 units per year, if construction starts right away.
Construction workers better be prepared to get busy since data shows over the last 10 years, an average of fewer than 80,000 homes have been built in California annually.
Since 1954, developers have constructed more than 300,000 units in a year only twice. To reach 3.5 million units by 2025, California would have to build housing at a rate unmatched even in boom years.
But it seems Newsom isn’t deterred by past numbers. To encourage construction of new housing, he has promised to make more tax credits available for affordable housing developments and to support voter-approved bond measures that finance housing construction.
Newsom said incentives could be made available to cities that reach housing goals; cities that don’t meet goals could lose out on state dollars for transportation projects.
