Hot California real estate market limits both buyers and sellers

California’s real estate market appears to be boxing both buyers and sellers into their current homes, and is also affecting home construction across the state. The state has reported a sharp decline in home sales, decreased inventory and escalating home prices

California wildfires stress an already sobering crisis in affordable housing construction

The numerous, massive wildfires – 100 of them at one point in late July – swarming across California are not only harming the environment and threatening lives but are also exacerbating the state’s affordable housing crisis.

California housing affordability reaches 10-year low

In a decade-long trajectory, increasing home prices and higher interest rates are limiting Californian’s ability to buy a home, according to the California Association of Realtors.

Rents are rising, and are doubly difficult for minority tenants

Fewer rentals are within reach for many Americans, but for black and Hispanic would-be tenants, it is even harder to find affordable housing. According to the real estate website Zillow, an “affordable” dwelling is one requiring the tenant pay 30 percent or less of median monthly income for rent.

More than a million affordable housing units at risk

Tools and resources that help preserve affordable housing face continuous challenges, leaving more than a million units at risk. The contracts that maintain affordability for low-income apartments will expire during the next 10 years, including 530,000 units with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) project-based rental assistance.