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Newsom administration makes progress on tiny home promise

Nearly a year ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom promised to deploy 1,200 tiny homes to help shelter the state’s growing population of homeless residents. Now, the state has chosen who will build those tiny homes and what they will look like — but there’s still no word on when people will be able to move in.

New California housing laws aimed to streamline building process take effect in 2024

If California wants to build its way out of its long term housing shortage, plenty of things stand in its way in 2024: high interest rates, sluggish local approval processes and a persistent shortage of skilled construction workers, among others. But a slew of housing bills from the 2023 legislative session going into effect on Jan. 1 promise to ease or eliminate some of the other burdens.

US new vehicle sales rise 12% as buyers shake off high prices, interest rates, and auto strikes

Undeterred by high prices, rising interest rates, autoworker strikes and a computer-chip shortage that slowed assembly lines, American consumers still bought 15.6 million new vehicles last year, 12% more than in 2022, the biggest increase in more than a decade.

California home sales drop to the lowest level in 16 years, California Association of Realtors reports

The number of homes sold in California in November dropped to the lowest level since the Great Recession in the early 2000s, according to a new report from the California Association of Realtors. Statewide, the number of single-family homes sold last month fell to 223,940, a 7.4% drop from October and a 5.8% drop compared to the same time last year.

China sanctions a US research firm and 2 individuals over reports on human rights abuses in Xinjiang

China says it is banning a United States research company and two analysts who have reported extensively on claims of human rights abuses committed against Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups native to the country’s far northwestern region of Xinjiang.

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