California

California: Most Urban and Densest Urban State

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The 2020 Census reveals California to have both the highest urban population density and the highest urbanization share of total population among the states.  read more »

How the California Dream Became a Nighmare

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For Americans, California once looked like the future. It was a state defined by risk-taking and utopian dreaming. Yet for most Californians today, the upward mobility so central to the state’s ethos is rapidly disappearing.  read more »

California's Budget Surplus Has Vanished; Its Economy is Facing a Harsh Reality

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The much-celebrated California boom is facing a harsh reality.

Everything was looking good, based on enormous growth in capital gains in tech stocks and property, and some in Sacramento assumed the bounty would last — until it didn’t.  read more »

California Dominates Urban Area Density Rankings

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The newly released Census Bureau urban area reveals all 10 or the densest urban areas are in California, as well as 39 of the densest 50, and 70 of the 100.  read more »

Home Building and Developing in The New Normal

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In a recent YouTube video Avoid These Cities (Housing Crash 2022) EPB Research provides an analysis of the national market. In general, West Coast is bad and East Coast is OK, especially the southeast. The overly regulated western states with higher raw land prices and huge city fees result in higher home prices.  read more »

Low Speed Fail

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Curiouser and curiouser, said Alice as she grew taller and taller in Wonderland.

Curiouser and curiouser, said everyone paying even the slightest attention as the high-speed rail fantasy grew bigger and more expensive and further behind schedule and more incomprehensible and more ludicrous and now, yes, even possibly taller and taller in California.  read more »

The Absurdity of California's Reparations Proposal

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You can always count on California’s progressive contingent to mix lunacy with hypocrisy. The state’s nine-member Reparations Task Force last month recommended large state payments to descendants of slaves, now living in California.  read more »

Re-elected Governor Newsom's Energy Literacy Will Be Challenged Over Next 4 Years

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Despite Newsom’s statewide policy decisions that are driving up costs of energy in the state, only a few Californians are upset with the ever-increasing costs for their electricity and gasoline  read more »

Housing Affordability in California: Part 3 — A Way Forward

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Urban containment has significant costs. In commenting on the association between London’s urban growth boundary,1 and the higher costs of housing, The Economist said: “Suburbs rarely cease growing of their own accord. The only reliable way to stop them, it turns out, is to stop them forcefully.  read more »

Living up to the "Left Coast" Name

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The “left coast” mostly lived up to its name during the midterms, though occasional signs of dissent could be seen. In California, Governor Gavin Newsom won big, and the GOP saw no major statewide successes.  read more »