San Diegans ask important questions about housing in Reddit AMA

Almost 100,000 new homes were permitted in San Diego County in the last six years. But where are all those homes going to go?

In partnership with Voice of San Diego, KPBS looked into where all the housing is being built in the county in the series In Whose Backyard.

And last week, KPBS Public Matters Reporter Jake Gotta and Voice of San Diego’s Senior Investigative Reporter Will Huntsberry answered questions from San Diegans about housing in an AMA on r/SanDiego on Reddit.

In Whose Backyard

San Diego's growing, but how? In Whose Backyard examines 100,000+ housing permits, revealing where new homes are built, their types, and the impact on San Diego communities and development.

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People had lots of questions about how and why different types of housing is built.

In their answers, Gotta and Huntsberry discussed policy choices that impact where housing is and isn’t allowed.

The top question, based on upvotes from r/SanDiego users, was about Proposition 13. This is a state law that limits property tax increases, and the Redditor asked about the impact this has on the housing market.

Huntsberry explains that, while Prop. 13 is impactful in many ways, it’s probably not to blame for the lack of housing production.

Another Redditor asked about what makes larger developments take so long.

As Gotta explains, the projects this Redditor asked about are at different stages and face different challenges. But there are common obstacles that most large developments face when getting approvals before they can start building.

Another question that received a lot of upvotes was about supply and demand, and asked how, if San Diego’s population has been consistent, the supply hasn’t kept up?

Huntsberry explains how the supply issue has been a long time in the making, and as more jobs continue to be added in San Diego, the city’s population is actually constrained by the lack of supply.

A Redditor asked a multipart question, which was answered by both Huntsberry and Gotta, about the type of developments being built.

Huntsberry tackled the first part of the question:

And Gotta answered the second part:

Gotta and Huntsberry answered several more questions (in great detail!) on Reddit; you can see the rest of the AMA on r/SanDiego now!