San Diego’s housing crisis is expected to worsen over the next three years, driving more seniors and families out of the region, according to a report by the Regional Chamber of Commerce.
The Housing Scorecard compares the progress of each of the county’s 18 cities in permitting the construction of new homes.
“We’ve got a critical shortage right now with only about 50 percent of the stock that we need being built, and it all goes back to government and regulations,” said Jerry Sanders, the Chamber president and CEO.
Only people with above average incomes are close to seeing enough available housing in the 18 cities across the county, the report states. Several cities have not built any units over the past six years for people in the very low to moderate income brackets.
Sanders said the region’s millennial workforce can not afford to live here, and neither can many others.
“We’re losing young folks and seniors at a fairly rapid pace out of San Diego,” Sanders said. “We’re seeing a much larger percentage of San Diegans paying well over 30 percent of their income for housing.”
The lack of affordability means companies are losing the nation’s most qualified workers to competing metropolitan regions.
“This is an economic crisis right now,” said Sean Karafin, the Chamber’s VP of public policy and economic research, and the author of the report. “Our employers consistently tell us at the Chamber that they can’t retain or hire good talent.”
The median price for a single family home in San Diego County in May was $612,000. The average cost of a two-bedroom rental was more than $2,200 a month.
