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The Race to Lower California’s Housing Costs
Democrats running for California governor join the Opinion columnist Ezra Klein to debate whether manufacturing technology or federal policy can solve the crisis of the state’s skyrocketing home construction costs.
But you have to cut the cost of construction somewhere. We are building houses and we are building apartment buildings the way we have been doing it for 100 years. And there is new technology to do this where you basically construct, manufacture the parts of the house off-site, the way you’d construct or manufacture a car, and then you assemble it on-site. If we could get rid of the Trump taxes, the tariffs that are now being found illegal, that would help us reduce the cost of building materials. If we could stop going to war in foreign —— The cost of construction in California was high before Donald Trump. It was high, but not as high as it is now. The speed is the driver. If we could be 22 months faster, which is what Colorado does, which does care about the environment and does have good worker standards, then the estimates are we could take 10 or even 20 percent off the price. And that was market rate. I strongly support the pending legislation that would create one uniform statewide permit, making it easier for everyone to have the same permit, easier for the state to monitor those denials. It’s time and it’s fees, are the two big levers we have control over. We have accumulated, I mean, I can tell you in my city over 10 pages’ worth of fees that look good on paper. It’s to mitigate every imaginable — it’s traffic and park fees and affordable housing fees. And they all sound good. On their own, they’re all justifiable. And they’re well intended. But you stack them up and they’re adding 10 to 20 percent to the cost of housing. And what the state can do is cap local fees. Prop 13 pushes cities to raise fees on new housing, because they aren’t collecting enough in property taxes to pay the bills. I know Prop 13 is popular, but you say you’re willing to do the unpopular things to fix the housing crisis. Why isn’t Prop 13 reform one of them? First of all, I didn’t vote for Prop 13. I’m on record opposing Prop 13 since 1978. Look it up. Am I misreading your campaign site? Well, I do believe that we need to hold property taxes down, but let me explain. When we pass Prop 13, commercial properties were paying 60 percent of the freight. Homeowners were paying 40 percent. Now it’s the other way around. But I do believe we need to fix Prop 13, but fix the whole broken tax system, but within the laws that we have today, Ezra. Yes, hold the line on property taxes.
The Race to Lower California’s Housing Costs The Race to Lower California’s Housing Costs
Democrats running for California governor join the Opinion columnist Ezra Klein to debate whether manufacturing technology or federal policy can solve the crisis of the state’s skyrocketing home construction costs.
By ‘The Ezra Klein Show’
May 12, 2026
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