The cost of an average home in California is about $870,000. To afford a mortgage that includes taxes and insurance on such a home, a household would need an income exceeding $250,000 per year. However, the average household income in California is only $136,000. Some say prices or interest rates must drop, but others argue low supply will keep prices high. Our guest, Curt Pringle—former mayor of Anaheim and California Assembly Speaker—has spent decades observing issues with the state’s construction code.
“What the state has really done in these last couple of years is pass a lot of pieces of legislation that try to force housing, but then they tie things onto the legislation that almost make it impossible to use those laws to develop housing,” says Pringle.
