Business

Fresh from beating back a recall, the governor signed a package of bills to address the California housing crisis. But what do these new laws mean for housing affordability in a state where median home prices have already shot past $800,000?

The last week or two, the public health numbers have started to rejoin the broader economic numbers with some signs of gradual progress. In addition, interest rates remain favorable and new listings resumed their uptrend last week. Rising mortgage applications and home sales have yet to materialize, but California consumers have gotten slightly less pessimistic about buying over the past month, so the rest of the year is expected to remain at or around the 400,000 unit benchmark through December.

Apple unveiled its next iPhone line-up, including a model that offers twice the storage available in earlier versions and other modest upgrades to last year’s editions that proved to be a big hit among consumers devouring the latest technology during the pandemic.

A new UCLA study concludes that California’s system of local housing quotas has a “fundamental flaw” that needs correction. For more than a half-century, California has been trying to nudge county and city governments into generating enough new housing to handle an ever-increasing demand.

California housing costs were astronomical before COVID-19. Now, they’re just wild. The median price of a home sold last month reached $811,000, up more than 20% from just a year ago.