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Stephen Jacob Smith
@stephenjacobsmith.com

If the owner of a single-family home rented to an immigrant family of six kicks them all out to put the house on the market for sale, and then a rich family of two empty-nesters buys it, the population of that lot has dropped by two-thirds. So clearly it doesn’t need any more housing.

Senator Scott Wiener@scottwiener.bsky.social

There’s a narrative that because California experienced a small population loss — which is now turning around — that means we don’t need to build new homes. False. California dug a big hole for decades & has a huge housing shortage. Prices are higher than 5 years ago. We need many more homes.

3 reposts56 likes

Joe Fish
@sadbusdriver.bsky.social

yeah, the drop in population has basically been fully offset by decreasing household sizes. If you look at rental vacancy rates in California, they've been at a flat ~4% for around a decade.