Massive Los Angeles Housing Building Boom Is Not Massive Enough

Posted August 4, 2015

California Commerce Department reports that approximately 20,000 residential building permits were issued in the first six months of 2015. This is up 41% from the same period last year, and 72% of those permits were in the large multiunit housing projects similar to what you see all over South Park, south of Downtown LA.

Sure, those are strong numbers, but not nearly enough to keep a lid on rents. The Legislative Analyst Office http://lao.ca.gov/reports/2015/finance/housing-costs/housing-costs.pdf estimates that it would take at least 55,000 new housing units annually in the Los Angeles MSA just to keep up with population growth.

Good news is that with 72% of permits being multiunit, Los Angeles is building much denser than before, which will create more housing in the same amount of space. Given land costs in coastal California such as Santa Monica, there’s no choice other than to build as dense as possible. This will eventually have a positive effect on traffic congestion and pollution if the building occurs nears mass transit, which it seems to be.

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