San Diego Mayor Wants "Homes for All of Us"

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria’s announcement this week of his plan called "Homes For All of Us" came at a good time.

It comes the same week that we got the news that the median price for a home in the region hit another record high last month, $750,000. Mayor Gloria says his plan is aimed at creating more homes that residents of all income levels can afford.

A real estate consultant told the San Diego Union Tribune, that with the price of homes now, unfortunately, buyers are going to be those who have the means. Having had a conversation just this week with someone thinking about taking a new job in San Diego, the cost of housing was a major concern.

As the real estate consultant explained, the No. 1 concern for businesses is finding housing for their employees. He says he thinks “we’ve turned into the Santa Barbara model, which is we only have so much inventory, and we can’t keep up with demand, so we’re an expensive place to live.”

But it could be that post-pandemic, concerns about home prices in San Diego won’t be as much of a factor as now.The pandemic lockdowns have shown lots of business owners and employees that working from home can be just as effective. And there may be more employees who work for local companies without even living in San Diego.

That doesn’t mean that San Diego still doesn’t need more affordable housing. So even if the mayor’s plan doesn’t lead to “Homes for All of Us”, it hopefully will mean homes for a lot more of us.

(Photo reporting partner 10News)