"San Jose and its surrounding cities have taken the top spot in housing - but the data is nothing to brag about. The San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro area took the No. 1 spot for the biggest decline in home building permits at 68% when comparing data from July 2020 and 2025, according to a recent report from New York-based HomeAbroad. Permits dropped from 1,949 to 623, the largest downturn compared to the nation's biggest metro areas in the same timeframes. The Kansas City area ranked second with 2,014 permits in 2020 to 701 permits in 2025, Austin-Round Rock ranked third at 3,979 to 2,917, the Nashville area came in fourth at 3,144 to 2,099 and the Los Angeles area ranked fifth at 2,715 to 1,694."
"Silicon Valley advocates and developers said the drop is indicative of high market prices and city fees leading to less housing development in a region that needs it. Erik Hayden, founder of Urban Catalyst, said the data isn't surprising because Silicon Valley is one of the most expensive places to build, with city fees costing between $50,000 and $120,000 per market-rate home. He said that means the breaks cities give developers aren't really breaks when the area charges 10 times the rest of the country. Coupled with high inflation and interest rates after the pandemic, he said it leads to fewer permit submittals. Hayden added his business isn't immune to the hardships. Urban Catalyst bought eight local properties and has only been able to complete two due to financing troubles. "Cities went, 'These developers are making all the money... We'll solve the housing crisis by making them pay for it,' Hayden told San José Spotlight. "All that does is make it so our projects don't pencil out, we don't build any units and now you're in double trouble. Now there's no market or below market (homes built).""
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara experienced a 68% decline in home-building permits, falling from 1,949 permits in July 2020 to 623 in July 2025. Other large declines occurred in Kansas City, Austin-Round Rock, Nashville and Los Angeles, based on U.S. Census Bureau building permits survey data for the top 100 metropolitan areas. Developers point to high local construction costs, city fees estimated between $50,000 and $120,000 per market-rate home, and post-pandemic inflation and interest rates as primary drivers of reduced permit submissions. Financing difficulties have also constrained project completions, further limiting housing production.
Read at San Jose Spotlight
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