How California's housing crunch affects the economy

In a micro example of California’s housing crunch, a recent listing of a San Francisco micro-unit home of 264 square feet seems like a tight squeeze but could be considered a good deal (!) at $425,000, because of its location and rooftop view. In the macro version of the housing squeeze, California's housing shortage keeps exacting a deeper and wider impact along the economic ladder. At the 2015 California Economic Summit, we asked California’s Treasurer John Chiang and Caleb Roope, president and CEO of homebuilder The Pacific Companies, how the lack of affordable housing is putting drag on the economy and squeezes out not only low-income residents but puts also economic pressure on middle-class Californians. The alternative is that more affordable housing would benefit not only people’s commutes, but also their health and educational outcomes, and the push toward sharing prosperity across all of the state’s varied regions. Those are big reasons why supporting the building of 1 million more homes was one of the three major goals that the 2015 California Economic Summit targeted in Ontario last month. http://www.caeconomy.org/reporting/entry/summit-sharpened-strategies-to-take-on-californias-affordable-housing-crisi One of the strategies sharpened was to make the case about the value of housing, which Chiang talks about in the video above. Other 2016 housing priorities discussed were exploring ways of financing affordable housing and reducing regulatory barriers, such as through reform of the California Environmental Quality Act. You can read more from our affordable housing series to hear about the need for more homes and also success stories, region-by-region: http://www.caeconomy.org/reporting/c/affordable-housing RELATED: Video: California affordable housing complex saves residents green while going green http://www.caeconomy.org/reporting/entry/video-case-study-for-success-amid-californias-housing-shortage