What San Diego Needs for Affordable Housing

Miramontes: “Vista is not the Vista we all remember; it’s a very dynamic and growing economy. because of that there is a lot of commercial development going on, including multifamily.”

SAN DIEGO—If the entitlement process were more streamlined, developers would have more resources to spend on building affordable multifamily units, JLL’s EVP Darcy Miramontes tells GlobeSt.com. The multifamily sector here, however, is not suffering. A recent JLL report revealed that San Diego’s multifamily trade volume in 2015 was $2.61 billion, according to PPR, outperforming the historical average of $1.75 billion.

The future for this sector also looks bright: JLL’s report revealed that the Trolley expansion in the next five years will connect Downtown to UTC via the UC San Diego Blue Line, expanding opportunities for transit-oriented developments. The homeownership rate here is at a historical low of 50.7%, nearly a 50/50 split between owning and renting, and the National Association of Realtors ranked San Diego the second most-expensive for-sale home market out of the 25 largest US metro areas—behind only San Francisco.