Advertisement
Advertisement

Despite the pandemic, San Diego County homebuilding was up in 2020

Vive Lux under construction
The Vive Lux apartment complex in Kearny Mesa under construction in February 2021.
(Kristian Carreon/For The San Diego Union-Tribune)

The region built 18 percent more homes after a sluggish 2019.

Share

San Diego County had the biggest increase in homebuilding in Southern California in 2020 during a pandemic that shuttered much of the economy.

There were 9,486 homes constructed in 2020, up 18 percent from a dismal 2019, said the Real Estate Research Council of Southern California. It is still way off from the more than 17,000 homes built in 2004 but was a return to about average for what has been constructed annually since the region climbed out of the Great Recession.

Real estate experts say the region is still short of meeting its housing needs. Despite many stories of people leaving California because of high costs, San Diego County’s population has continued to grow, albeit more slowly.

Advertisement

San Diego real estate analyst Gary London said the region should be building up to 20,000 homes a year to keep up with demand. He said the last year the county made a dent was 2005, when 15,258 homes were built.

“The numbers remain quite literally one half, or less, of what the true need in San Diego is,” he said.

There were 3,160 single-family homes constructed in 2020, up 4 percent from the previous year. Construction of 6,326 multifamily homes — apartments, condos and townhouses — increased 26 percent from 2019.

London predicted San Diego County could struggle economically if there is not more for-sale housing, as the numbers continue to show it is mainly apartments being constructed. With resale listings at historically low levels, he said middle-income buyers will have few options.

Another way to look at this year’s numbers: It’s remarkable the permit numbers didn’t plummet. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s first stay-at-home order, roughly a year ago this week, did not include homebuilding as essential work. The construction industry was able to rapidly convince him that if people were required to stay at home, they needed new homes. In fact, homebuilding was added as an essential job about four hours after the original order.

Murtaza Baxamusa, director of planning and development for the San Diego County Building and Construction Trades Council’s Family Housing Corporation, said all the workers at the job sites deserve praise for following COVID-19 protocols and completing large projects.

“In some ways, we need to celebrate that we were able to overcome the pandemic,” he said. “Everything is still on track.”

There are ongoing reasons why construction could slow in the next few years: Lack of land, possible changes in financing for new projects and rising material costs. Baxamusa argued any comments from developers about lack of labor is just a figment of their imagination — the real reason is not wanting to pay workers enough.

San Diego County’s population has been growing very slowly in recent years. From 2018 to 2019, San Diego County added 4,469 people, say U.S. Census estimates. That is substantially down from the first half of the decade when the population was growing by an average of 38,000 annually.

Housing analysts are quick to point out they don’t think slowed population growth is a reason to cool housing production, largely because they say high housing costs are why many people are leaving.

Borre Winckel, CEO of the Building Industry Association of San Diego County, said it isn’t just that people are leaving but the last 14 or so years of sluggish growth have meant many people who have stayed are in less-than-ideal housing situations.

“The folks that need housing 14 years ago are still stuck where they are: Living with mom or dad, or in converted garages,” he said. “They are still stuck in one multifamily unit.”

After its reduced construction numbers in 2019, San Diego County had the biggest jump in Southern California with its 18 percent permit increase last year. The only other positive area was Riverside County, up by 10 percent.

Los Angeles County produced 5 percent fewer housing units; Orange County was down 40 percent; San Bernardino County was down 26 percent; Ventura County was down 28 percent; and Santa Barbara County was down 64 percent.