Example Image
Civitas Outlook
Topic
Pursuit of Happiness
Published on
Feb 18, 2025
Contributors
Joel Kotkin
Photo by Cedric Letsch on Unsplash

California’s Housing Problems Require a Better Solution than Densify, Densify, Densify

Contributors
Joel Kotkin
Joel Kotkin
Senior Research Fellow
Joel Kotkin
Summary
California’s mounting housing problem requires more alternatives, especially for people seeking lower rents and affordable single-family houses.
Summary
California’s mounting housing problem requires more alternatives, especially for people seeking lower rents and affordable single-family houses.
Listen to this article

The Palisades and Eaton fires represent thousands of personal tragedies, but they also constitute a collective disaster, adding new housing shortages to California’s already massive shortfall — a catastrophe that stems not from acts of nature but from human policy blunders.

Gov. Gavin Newsom bought a new $9-million house in November, but too many of his fellow Californians may never own a home or find an affordable rental. Under Newsom, the state has tried reforms designed to increase building and affordability, but precious little has changed.

Home prices in coastal California are nearly 400% above the national average, and statewide, the median cost of a home is 2.5 times higher than in the rest of country. California has the second lowest homeownership rate in the nation, 56% (New York’s is lowest, 54%).

Continue reading at the Los Angeles Times

10:13
1x
10:13
More articles

The G7 Is Failing To Address Global Imbalances

Politics
Jul 30, 2026

Immigration Alone Won't Solve Canada's Population Decline

Politics
Jul 28, 2026
View all

Join the newsletter

Receive new publications, news, and updates from the Civitas Institute.

Sign up
More on

Pursuit of Happiness

The Rise of Latino America

In The Rise of Latino America, Hernandez & Kotkin argue that Latinos, who are projected to become America’s largest ethnic group, are a dynamic force shaping the nation’s demographic, economic, and cultural future. Far from being a marginalized group defined by oppression, Latinos are integral to America’s story. They drive economic growth, cultural evolution, and workforce vitality. Challenges, however, including poverty, educational disparities, and restrictive policies, threaten their upward mobility. Policymakers who wish to harness Latino potential to ensure national prosperity and resilience should adopt policies that prioritize affordability, safety, and economic opportunity over ideological constraints.

Joel Kotkin, Jennifer Hernandez, Wendell Cox, Marshall Toplansky, Erika Ozuna
Pursuit of Happiness
Nov 10, 2025
Revival: Americans Heading Back to the Hinterlands

Smaller communities throughout the country are poised to play an outsize role in forging our future.

Joel Kotkin, Wendell Cox
Pursuit of Happiness
Sep 19, 2025
How to Save Our Urban Centers

What will the future of American cities look like?

Joel Kotkin
Pursuit of Happiness
Jun 26, 2025
National Poll from Civitas Institute: Americans Concerned About AI, Economic Issues

The Civitas Institute Poll, conducted from March 11-20, 2025, asked 1,200 Americans an array of questions about how things are going in the country.

Daron Shaw
Pursuit of Happiness
Jun 11, 2025
Peter Robinson Unbridled - A Civitas Institute Podcast

Peter Robinson Unbridled

A new show and podcast bringing the energy of Austin to wide-ranging conversations on politics, economics, education, and culture.

View all
** items
Scientists Who Believe in God are Challenging the Expert Atheist Establishment

There is a growing view that a creator may be behind major discoveries being made in science.

Joel Kotkin
Pursuit of Happiness
Jul 26, 2026
Natural Right on Horseback

Richard M. Reinsch II
Pursuit of Happiness
Jul 17, 2026
The Founders and the Common Good

Vincent Phillip Muñoz
Pursuit of Happiness
Jul 13, 2026
Tocqueville Deserves a Washington Statue

Jonathan Hartley
Pursuit of Happiness
Jul 7, 2026

What Was the Founders' Design for National Security Beyond the Battlefield?

Pursuit of Happiness
Jul 31, 2026
1:05

Constitutional Experts Expose the Untold Truth Behind Deep Political Division

Pursuit of Happiness
Jun 29, 2026
1:05

AEI’s “America at 250” Summer Series: We Hold These Truths

Pursuit of Happiness
Jun 22, 2026
1:05

Robert George and Cornel West - Truth Matters, A Book Talk

Pursuit of Happiness
Sep 26, 2025
1:05

Arthur Brooks on the Secret to a Fulfilling Life

Pursuit of Happiness
Jul 7, 2025
1:05
No items found.
No items found.
Spielberg’s Empty Hope

'Disclosure Day' should have been called 'Hope and Change,' or rather 'Change and Hope.‍'

Titus Techera
Pursuit of Happiness
Jul 10, 2026
Deliberative Republicanism and the Triumph of the American Founding

Instead of rejecting the moral urgency of the postliberal right and left, it is fitting and proper that we redirect it through the right kind of education—both formal and informal—that can inspire affection for our Constitution.

Michael Lucchese
Pursuit of Happiness
Jul 9, 2026
The Declaration Is a Metaphysical and Political Triumph

It is the nature of genuinely lasting great texts that we observe new things in them that fit our moment.

Brian Smith
Pursuit of Happiness
Jun 17, 2026
Gordon S. Wood's American Revolution

Widely acknowledged as the pre-eminent historian of the American Founding in our time, Wood was virtually without peer within academic American history today.

Steven Hayward
Pursuit of Happiness
Jun 11, 2026
No items found.