Posted on 05/05/2026 11:39:41 AM PDT by millenial4freedom
California used to be a place where you could get ahead. Work hard, save up, buy your first home, and build a life.
That path is disappearing.
A generation ago, buying your first home was something many Californians could imagine doing in their 20s. Today, the median first-time homebuyer is 40.
Today, first-time buyers are being shut out of the market entirely. The homes that do get built are too big, too expensive, and completely out of reach for young, middle-class families. Starter homes, the foundation of a healthy housing market, have almost vanished.
That’s not just a housing issue. It’s an opportunity issue.
When there’s no entry point into the market, families can’t get started. Workers can’t afford to stay. And the entire system locks up, with fewer homes available and higher prices across the board.
More than half of Californians under 35 say housing costs make them consider leaving the state.
California isn’t building the kinds of homes people actually need. And until that changes, affordability will keep getting worse.
California Democrats have made it harder and more expensive to build at every step of the process. Costs have been layered on without regard for what they do to the final price of a home. Fees, mandates, and requirements are often the same regardless of size, which makes smaller, entry-level homes far less viable to build.
When the cost structure looks like that, builders don’t stop building—they shift toward larger, more expensive homes where the numbers still work.
At the same time, the approval process has become slower, more complex, and more uncertain. Projects face overlapping requirements and drawn-out timelines that add months or even years before construction begins. Every delay adds cost, and those costs are passed directly on to buyers.
(Excerpt) Read more at stevehiltonforgovernor.com ...
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Here, in Florida, they buy up old houses, fixer-uppers, and renovate them then ten of them will live in them while doing the same to other houses................
Nothing but McMansions as far as the eye can see.
Very, very few under 3000 sqft.
But this retiree lives in a 850 sqft 2bdrm on a 7800 sqft lot. Built in 1948 as a post war ENTRY LEVEL HOUSE.
Hardwood and tile throughout.
And one that doesn’t say “COLEMAN” above the door.
Please, look on the bright side. So many have been educated by a government financed education.
What could go wrong?
Assuming that the infrastructure of sewers, water, and electricity exist. Unless we do deport the illegals, they do not. Just the cost of upgrading those utilities for an ADU can exceed the cost of the structure because of said regulatory requirements. How Hilton proposes to move county bureaucracies Statewide on that one I cannot envision.
Many illegals do rent apartments and homes. The cost is subsidized by the the taxpayer—especially in CA.
My friend just sold his family’s home built in the 50’s small lot around 1200sq foot house.
1.2 million.
Was a starter home in the 50’s.
all for red tape reduction
but isnt the cost of land a major factor?
My first home in Palo Alto was built in the late 30s or early 40s. It was a 30 ft x 30 ft box that included three bedrooms, a single car garage, a tiny kitchen, a dining area and a small living room. It was built on a concrete slab, so no basement. It had a simple gravity wall heater that jutted into the living room and the hall behind it. No AC.
The whole place was simplicity to the extreme. And NONE of today’s kids would even consider moving into such a low-end relic. A lot of the problem is kids want to live in a better house than they grew up in without saving and working for years to get there.
ADU’s are the answer if towns can get behind it. The ideal would be your standard 7500 sq. ft. lot with and an alley in the back where utilities are connected. Container housing would work-start out with a 320 sq. ft. shell and grow from there. People are living alone more and don’t need much space. A small stick house went from $100k to build to 300 over 6 years in my town.
Trump needs to allow construction of whole subdivions on federal land that are immune from local zoning laws and building codes
Remove all the illegals and you will all but fix the problem
At least temporarily. Then the law and code issues will come back in to play
We just bought basically the same house in southern mo
60k
To me the question is why don’t builders build cheap homes if there are a lot of buyers that will buy them.
Guess the answer is that there are also a lot of more wealthy people that will buy more expensive homes, and the builders make more money from the expensive homes.
Or maybe the answer has to do with property values, not the cost of the structures.
Start with the small ADU’s in the back-it’s quicker. Over time the main houses can be built as the ADU people get their finances padded.
haha, my 1200 sq ft ranch I was living in in 2000 in Sunnyvale was over $600k back then... Today those homes are nearly 3 Million.
Building smaller homes isn’t going to fix the problems in California....
Permitting costs in Los Angeles County are around $300,000, they will never be cheap again.
Margins are better on McMansions for a variety of reasons, all of which would cause me to buy an older existing home before I’d touch a McMansion.
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