SAN DIEGO—Despite job growth and high innovation, low- and moderate-income workers still can't find affordable housing in San Diego County, and many are forced to live on the outskirts of the county and commute in, speakers at last week's 33rd Annual San Diego Economic Roundtable told attendees.
During the second session of the roundtable (to read about Session 1, click here), Deborah Ruane, EVP and chief strategy officer for the San Diego Housing Commission, said there is an alarming lack of affordable housing in the region. “We're turning in [Section 8] vouchers at about 70 per month.” San Diego's median area income is $75,300, but housing is very expensive to build. Total development cost per unit is $300,000, and costs continue to rise.
The SDHC determined more than 60 reasons why affordable housing is more expensive to build than market-rate homes, according to Ruane. One of the reasons is that funding sources for these projects have constraints: a project has to have solar energy, be near a freeway entrance or look so beautiful that it doesn't look like affordable housing, for example. Also, local, state and federal governmental regulations cause the costs to build these projects to rise.
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Carrie Rossenfeld
Carrie Rossenfeld is a reporter for the San Diego and Orange County markets on GlobeSt.com and a contributor to Real Estate Forum. She was a trade-magazine and newsletter editor in New York City before moving to Southern California to become a freelance writer and editor for magazines, books and websites. Rossenfeld has written extensively on topics including commercial real estate, running a medical practice, intellectual-property licensing and giftware. She has edited books about profiting from real estate and has ghostwritten a book about starting a home-based business.
