In a state where housing prices are 230 percent above the national average, California’s millennial generation faces unprecedented economic challenges and diminished prospects with respect to housing, according to a new whitepaper presented by Joel Kotkin, RC Hobbs Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures, Chapman University.
Kotkin presented the findings of “California’s Fading Promise: Millennial Prospects in the Golden State” at a C.A.R. Center for California Real Estate (CCRE) event in Sacramento last week, hosted by C.A.R. CEO Joel Singer. Millennials’ incomes are not higher than those in key competitive state, but the costs they must absorb, particularly for housing, are the highest in the country. Their prospects for homeownership are increasingly remote, driving substantial out-migration from the state. The report, sponsored by CCRE, found California has experienced a net loss in migrants for at least the last 15 years.
Rather than limit new construction to apartments and condos in “infill” development, Kotkin suggested using vacant land in interior communities like the Inland Empire and Central Valley.
The report also outlines other steps that could bring more millennials into the housing market and restore middle class prosperity to California.
Read the full report.
