California’s leaders will readily acknowledge their state needs more housing. But they haven’t succeeded in cutting down the thicket of regulations that limit construction.

In 2017, then-gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom promised to “lead the effort to develop the 3.5 million new housing units we need by 2025, because our solutions must be as bold as the problem is big.”

At the end of last year, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that, from 2019 to 2023, just 650,000 new homes had been permitted , and not all those homes were built.

While home prices have risen throughout the country, California’s prices are exceptionally high. Redfin reported that the median single-family sale price in California was more than $865,000 in July .

The aftermath of January’s devastating Palisades Fi

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