Housing Policy

As ABAG looks more closely at housing in the region, there appears to be shifts in the real estate market in the Bay Area. Read More

May's Map of the Month from MTC and ABAG Executive Director Steve Heminger looks at what year cities around the Bay Area are anticipated to reach their housing growth forecasts, assuming the annualized housing production rate since 2010 doesn't change. From the Executive Director's latest report to the MTC Commission and ABAG Executive Board: To beat a dead horse, May’s Map of the Month highlights the continued housing production challenges in the Bay Area, comparing Department of Finance housing production data between January 2010 and December 2017 with the Plan Bay Area 2040 housing Read More

The latest dispatch from America Counts: Stories Behind the Numbers from the U.S. Census provides an in-depth look at how data informs advocacy on both sides of the Bay Area’s housing debate. The story, NIMBY Meets YIMBY: Housing Movement Pushes for More Housing, shows how Census data is used to analyze everything from jobs to housing balance, rent burdens, building permit data and demographic change. From the article: Recently, the quest for housing affordability has dominated the national conversation. According to the 2016 American Community Survey (ACS) 1-Year estimates, 38.2 percent of Read More

Last year was a very active year for housing legislation in California, with approval of a housing package that included new funding for affordable housing as well as some modest regulatory changes. It appears, however, this may have just been a warm-up act for 2018. Currently, there are nearly 20 different major housing bills under consideration by lawmakers in the state’s capitol. Outside organizations are also organizing to place various housing-related measures on the statewide ballot in November 2018. In this post, we’ll provide an overview of these various bills and initiatives and then Read More

Four meeting will be held on Friday, March 9, starting at 10:00 a.m. at the Bay Area Metro Center, including the MTC Operations Committee, Joint MTC Planning and ABAG Administrative Committees, Joint MTC and ABAG Legislative Committees, and Joint MTC Commission and MTC Policy Advisory Council. Major items for discussion include a proposed amendment to Plan Bay Area 2040 (Plan) and the Amended 2017 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) to revise the cost and scope of the U.S. 101 Managed Lanes Project in San Mateo County (see the staff presentation and memo); a summary of the 2018 housing Read More

On the Bay Area housing beat there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that at yesterday’s ABAG Regional Planning Committee meeting, staff unveiled an exciting new online housing data portal. The portal provides easy access to data related to housing permit activity as well as local adoption of housing policies in the 101 towns and cities and nine counties of the San Francisco Bay Area. The permitting data will allow users to see the affordability level (very low, low, moderate, or above moderate income), housing type (single family, multifamily, mobile home, second unit) and location Read More