As Los Angeles struggles with a worsening housing shortage, San Diego offers a telling contrast. The city has been far more successful at attracting apartment construction, thanks in part to a development environment industry insiders describe as clearer, faster and more predictable. San Diego’s regulatory framework includes fewer fees, less rent control, more consistent planning and a streamlined approval process. “It is easier to build in San Diego than Los Angeles because

In the immediate aftermath of last January’s devastating Los Angeles firestorm, state and local leaders vowed to fast-track rebuilding. For California, where housing construction is notoriously slow and expensive, the scale of destruction posed a singular test. One year later, much of the visible wreckage is gone. Burned homes, ruined appliances and contaminated soil have largely been removed. Residents whose houses survived have begun returning, reconstruction permits have b

A drywall contractor on two major affordable housing projects in San Diego County has been caught cheating its workers, and the U.S. Department of Labor  just made sure they’ll pay for it. Escondido-based Innovative Wall Systems, Inc., doing business as Alta Drywall , has agreed to pay $790,000 in back wages, liquidated damages, and civil penalties after investigators uncovered systematic wage theft affecting 580 workers for one of the region’s largest and most well-known aff

Residents have begun moving into Julia West House, Oregon’s tallest mass timber building and one of the first “Type IV-B” towers built since the state adopted its mass timber building code in 2018. Rising 12 stories and standing just over 44 meters tall, the project delivers 90 fully furnished apartments—60 studios and 30 one-bedrooms—for residents earning 30 percent or less of the area median income, defined as $26,070 for a single person in 2025. The development sits on a

California lawmakers have approved SB 79 , the Abundant & Affordable Homes Near Transit Act, which would allow multifamily housing near...