Sacramento Bee
April 2, 2025
Building apartments in California is more than twice as expensive than in Texas, according to a report released Wednesday by Rand, the international research group.
“The time to bring a project to completion in California is more than 22 months longer than the average time required in Texas,” the analysis found.
The report reviewed data from more than 100 completed apartment developments in California, Texas and Colorado. California was the most expensive of the three.
“These are really important benchmarks for policymakers to think about,” said Jason Ward, co-director of Rand’s Center on Housing and Homelessness and the lead author of the study.
“It’s literally impossible to overstate the issue of affordability in California,” said Ward, who used to live in Southern California before moving to the Chicago area. The price of housing was a factor in that decision.
The report also came with recommendations.
It said California lawmakers should adopt a policy that requires local governments to approve or deny plans for housing projects within a limited amount of time. The state’s “predevelopment time” is 15 months behind Texas, on average, the analysis found.
The advice also included speeding up construction timelines and weighing environmental and labor requirements, as ways to help reduce costs.
Legislators moved bills forward Tuesday that were meant to speed up housing production and several lawmakers have announced they want to take action on more.
Ward said he hoped the report would “help people recognize the stakes” of state policies.