[quote=FlyerInHi]BG, so I take it that you concede that more home building is better for affordability. Supply and demand. In real estate, it’s often demand followed by supply.[/quote]Sure, but in CA coastal counties, it’s not going to happen. Even counties such as SD, who formerly regularly cratered to the whims of Big Development now no longer have the land available to keep rolling in the sheets with them.

Inland-but-urban counties such as San Bernardino, and, to a lesser extent, San Joaquin, may continue to pander to Big Development’s whim at their peril. Their county seats have both been forced in recent years to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection which was directly caused by their allowing overbuilding and subsequently not being able to afford municipal services for the extra tens of thousands (100,000+?) in population their ill-thought-out decisions engendered. This problem was a direct result of their past poor decisions to grant too many subdivision permits for the size government they could afford to maintain.

And a LOT of of the rural and semi-rural counties in CA have had building moratoriams in place for decades, strict zoning against big box stores and the like as well as signage type and height restrictions …. including close-in Marin County. This will never change, nor should it.

If home buyers today think they need a 3000+ sf mcmansion on a 1/2+ AC lot, they can head on over to the Texas panhandle and southward from there (Lubbock to Abilene area). As far as the eye can see, there is “developable” scrub which is too dry for most agriculture uses. These new home buyers can pay Texas-size property taxes and have a nice life under a Big Sky parking all their toys and spreading out to their heart’s content. CA isn’t the place for these people anymore. The days of subdivision and CFD-forming are numbered in CA, at least on land which is worth anything at all (windblown Adelanto and Victor Valley excepted … for now, lol).