What to Do to Make San Diego More Affordable

If there is one word that might best describe the biggest challenge for San Diego is the word, “housing.”

The new study this week about the cost of affording a home says a lot about why.

It’s the study by Realtor.com you are hearing about that says a San Diego household must earn $258,000 a year to afford a local home. That means being able to afford to pay a hefty monthly mortgage.

With the median annual income less than half of that, USD economist Alan Gin told the Union Tribune, there are impacts on the local economy.

In other words, the high cost of housing has ripple effects.

As much as we see attempts to building more affordable housing (and you have to define affordable) there is not a lot of it.

And that leads to a homelessness problem and that leads to consumers not spending as much money on other items while prices are always going higher at least a bit every year. And that has an impact on large and small businesses.

Obviously, there are still a lot of households that find ways to be able to live in San Diego. But local leaders would be wise to work together to find ways for more people to own a home and make the city of San Diego a more affordable city.

(Photo c.e. albert)