SB 79 is a historic step toward tackling the root cause of California's affordability crisis - our profound shortage of homes and too few people having access to transit," Wiener (D-San Francisco) said in a statement.
As a company that takes great pride in being L.A. based, we no longer build within the city of Los Angeles because of the unpredictability, the cost of doing it [and] the multiple layers of bureaucracy you have to go through for approvals, Caruso said on stage. And I made that decision long before I ever ran for office [in 2022].
The bill, which involves a wide range of policy approaches to address housing affordability, including provisions to boost supply, modernize financing options, reduce regulatory barriers and promote economic mobility, previously passed the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs in July with a unanimous 24-0 vote. Today, the Senate took a historic step towards addressing our nation's worsening housing crisis and bringing down costs for the American people by passing the bipartisan ROAD to Housing Act,
New rules for insurance company owners that are now out of state regulators' reach. An emergency relief fund to help low-income homeowners pay for insurance. A national risk pool to spread insurance costs across several states. Those are some of the ideas - some new, some brought back - that Florida's Democratic senators are pushing to ease the high costs of property insurance costs for homeowners and renters in the state.
The Debt Collective is perhaps best known for the ripple effects of the small student loan repayment strike the group organized against a defunct for-profit college in 2015. The strike grew into a nationwide movement demanding justice for millions of people facing overwhelming student debt. By 2025, the Biden administration had approved $188.8 billion in student debt relief for more than 5 million people.
Unsurprisingly, cities like New York and Jersey City were some of the least affordable, but some cities with newly changing demographics crept into the top 10. "For the third year running, New York remains the most unaffordable city, squeezed by high demand and record low vacancy rates," The Economist research reporter Lizzy Peet told Business Insider.
A startling trend has hit Santa Clara County over the past two years - more people have fallen into homeless for the first time and can't find a way out. Santa Clara County's 2025 point-in-time count found 4,650 people have been homeless for a year or longer, known as chronic homelessness. That's a 21% increase from 2023, when there were 3,833 chronically homeless residents county-wide.
I said it then and I'll say it again now: I love this city. I also think we're at a turning point. Change is hardand inevitable. Our bodies age, jobs shift, no two days look the same. Change can be beautiful when we understand it and frightening when we don't. Saratoga itself is proof: This place was once orchards. Generations before us chose to allow homes, and that choice is why most of usmy family, yourscan live here at all.
I say that as someone who serves on the Real Property Taxation Committee in the State Assembly, as someone who has looked at this system, sought to introduce legislation to augment this system, and yet been told that the scale of this is one where the Assembly, the Senate, Albany in general, is waiting for the vision of the mayor.
For Aislyn and Ali Benjamin, an ADU, a small secondary home on an existing lot, was the most practical way into homeownership. They live near Danville, California - a small city just over an hour east of San Francisco - where the median home sale price was $1.8 million in August, according to Realtor.com. Wanting to stay near their jobs and avoid long-term renting, they built a 1,200-square-foot unit in the backyard of Ali's parents' home in San Ramon, a city next to Danville.
California desert communities like Thousand Palms, Indian Wells, and Del Mar have transformed into year-round luxury destinations attracting affluent buyers from major cities like Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. The surge in demand is driven by a desire for resort-style living combined with modern conveniences, leading to a significant increase in property prices and incomes in these areas. Lifestyle amenities such as golf, tennis, and wellness facilities, along with advanced smart home technology, are major drivers of demand for luxury properties in California desert communities.
Affordability conditions have improved for four straight months, with lower mortgage rates and stronger income growth boosting prospective buyers' purchasing power, said Edward Seiler, MBA's associate vice president of housing economics and executive director of the Research Institute for Housing America. MBA is expecting that moderating home-price appreciation, coupled with lower rates, will continue to ease affordability constraints and help to boost activity in the housing market.
Even though having pets became somewhat of the new craze for Gen Z and millennials who knew they couldn't afford to have human children, that's seemingly become too expensive on top of housing costs. Some people even report staying in a marriage or relationship longer than they wanted because they couldn't afford housing plus a divorce or to live on their own.
Last year, California had 2.8 million households in all kinds of living arrangements where housing expenses exceeded 50% of their income. That's the largest burdened flock among the states and 14% of the 19.4 million nationwide. California's economic rivals ranked next: Texas and Florida, at 1.7 million. Such cash-strapped households equal 20% of all Californians, the biggest share nationally and well above the 15% U.S. share. Texas was No. 12 at 15% and Florida was No. 3 at 18%.
The replacement level or rate needed to sustain the population is 2.1, a rate the U.S. met roughly two decades ago. The decline reflects broader social and economic shifts, including delayed marriage and parenthood. But economists and demographers cited in a Realtor.com report point to housing costs as a significant factor. Larger homes that can comfortably accommodate multiple children have become increasingly out of reach for many families, Hannah Jones, senior economic research analyst at Realtor.com, said in the report.
John Conlon wants Budget 2026 to offer renters a pathway to home-ownership A Dublin renter had to leave his career in teaching in order to afford renting in the capital. Athlone man John Conlon (30) holds a first-class master's degree in education, a sector that is struggling to maintain its workforce, but has moved into the field of recruitment.
Debt consolidation has emerged as the dominant driver of home equity borrowing and a key theme that loan officers reported 81% of loan officers told HomeLight that they've seen a spike in homeowners borrowing against their equity, with 29% qualifying this as a significant increase and 52% calling it a slight increase. In 2025, 87% of loan officers told HomeLight that debt consolidation was the main reason borrowers accessed their equity through home equity lines of credit (HELOCs).
Last year's presidential election underscored, particularly to Democrats, that the costs of living were a major factor in the outcome. Inflation had increased sharply during Joe Biden's presidency, and voters' angst about rising prices worked against Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign to succeed him in the White House. Not surprisingly, therefore, when the California Legislature opened its 2025 session, its dominant Democrats declared that they would focus on taming the state's notoriously high costs for housing, fuel, utilities and other necessities of modern life.
