To all the agents in the house,
The lack of inventory has defined the last 12 months for many of you. Congress may or may not pass an infrastructure bill this fall that would route billions of dollars to the U.S. Housing and Urban Development for more housing. But California has - maybe! - taken action that will increase the housing supply so dramatically that it will both improve Golden State inventory, and provide a template for other statehouses.
By far the nation's most populous state - and the one with the 2nd fewest homes per capita (Utah is #1) - California's legislature passed its "duplex bill" this fall after the legislation failed last year in a bizarre, 11th hour unraveling. After surviving a recall effort, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill this month: It allows owner-occupied homes currently zoned as single-family to divide their parcels into as many as four units. The legislation does not allow such construction in historic or landmark districts, and homeowners must still follow some local rules regarding upzoning.
Newsom also signed a law putting $1.5 billion toward new housing construction.
And there are previous, smaller efforts in California to build more housing through relaxed construction rules. For example, Gov. Jerry Brown signed in 2017 a law allowing for the construction of accessory dwelling units on single-family properties.
California's neighbor to the north, Oregon, is also in its early stage of pushing for more construction through overriding local zoning restrictions: Oregon largely banned local governments from single-family zoning laws in 2019.
The approach of California and Oregon, it seems, will do more directly for rental inventory, but agents I am curious to hear what you think (and what is happening in your state) the downstream effects will be for real estate.
Will this lead to significantly more transactions? Or is this the kind of inside baseball that ultimately has a marginal impact on inventory?
I'm also curious what you see as the government's role here. Does the federal and state government need to combat antiquated city zoning laws and naggy NIMBYs? Or are lawmakers prisoners of the current housing cycle?
Please let me know your thoughts - I can be emailed anonymously at mblake@housingwire.com.
Sincerely,
Matthew Blake
Senior Real Estate Reporter
EmoticonEmoticon