Home prices in California are the highest among all states
California has performed poorly relative to other states in terms of homeownership rates, housing costs for owner households with mortgages and new housing permits filed per 100 new residents, a new study has found.
The report was commissioned by the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization Next 10 and prepared by Beacon Economics.
The study found that California has the highest home prices of any state. The state’s median home price in 2016 was $266,750, greater than the median home price in the US as a whole. California homeowners also spent more of their income on housing than those in other states except New Jersey. In 2016, the share of income spent on housing for Californians was 21.9%, down from 22.5% in 2014.
The report also revealed that housing construction has been slow following the recession. From 2008 to 2017, an average of 73,000 new housing permits was issued per year, far lower than the average of 135,000 permits issued annually between 1991 and 2007. California has the second-lowest rate of homeownership and worst rate of rental housing over-crowdedness in the country.
“California is sinking deeper into a housing crisis, and this raises questions about the sustainability of the state’s overall economic growth,” Next 10 Founder F. Noel Perry said. “California continues to draw more high-earning, educated people from other states and countries, but the ever-increasing cost of housing is forcing lower and middle-income Californians to leave the state in hopes of finding more affordable housing.”
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