One thing with fewer fans than regulatory red tape: San Diego’s high housing prices.
Both come into play in a new study out from the Fermanian Business and Economic Institute at Point Loma Nazarene University, which found we can likely blame regulation for 40 percent of the cost of new housing. Chief economist Lynn Reaser was principal author of the study, which also found “even a 3 percent cut in regulations could benefit consumers through $2.5 billion in higher income, a $3.1 billion boost to the county economy and 37,331 more jobs,” as the U-T summed up.
Reaser dug deeper than that with us on this week’s podcast.
“There is a very large premium that everyone pays in San Diego County for inefficiencies, lack of streamlined processes, redundancies and really poor governance … There’s no incentive to be efficient,” Reaser told us, riffing through some of the costs that come with each step of the building process – from entitlement to construction. “And all this adds to the cost of housing.”
A key takeaway from the study, Reaser said, was that well-intentioned regulatory processes were hurting people we would hope to support, and hope would be able to afford to live in the county.
Jump to 22:20 in the show to check out Reaser’s interview.
Also on the podcast: not-so-portable portable classrooms, Chris Berman’s Super Bowl claim and “you’re with me, leather,” two cases of officer-involved shootings, Balboa Park’s dying trees and ill-planned infrastructure, the future of Civic San Diego and what we know about Tribune Company buying the U-T.
Listen to the podcast here, on Stitcher or on iTunes.
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