California's Affordable Housing Needs:

2025 County Reports & Dashboard Now Available

As we do every May during Affordable Housing Month, the California Housing Partnership has released the new Affordable Housing Need Reports for each county in California.

Highlights from this year's county reports:

*In 56 of the 58 counties, average asking rents increased between 2023 and 2024.

*In 24 counties, renters have to earn at least twice the state or local minimum wage to afford average asking rents. In ten counties, they have to earn three or more times the amount.

*In 17 counties, state and federal funding for housing production and preservation decreased from FY2022-2023 to FY2023-2024.

*In 29 counties, more than 10,000 low-income households do not have access to an affordable home

These county-level assessments track the progress of local and state leaders' initiatives to alleviate the housing instability faced by low-income Californians in all regions of the state. The challenging housing market trends causing the instability are documented in these reports and in our state-level 2025 Housing Needs Report.

This year's dashboard update also includes:

• Two new views: Cost Burden by Race and Ethnicity by Income Group and Overcrowding by Tenure
• Raw data downloading capabilities for each chart
• More data additions to the chart tooltips (see more at a glance)
• An expanded glossary is available in the Methodology and Glossary document

What Can Be Done?

The Partnership urges state leaders to: 

• Place a $10 billion affordable housing bond (AB 736 Wicks or SB 417 Cabaldon) on the 2026 ballot and actively support its passage. [SIGN ON TO SUPPORT]. 

• Maintain/expand the current 20% allocation of cap and trade auction revenues for the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program [SIGN ON TO SUPPORT] 

• Expand and make permanent the enhanced state Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. 

• Make funding the Multifamily Housing Program part of the baseline state budget and increase the amount incrementally each year. 

• Develop an on-going revenue source to fund affordable housing production and preservation at the scale needed to meet state goals over 10 years as described in California's Roadmap Home 2030.

• Reduce the cost of developing affordable homes by awarding all necessary state resources at one time using a single application as we describe can be done here.

The California Housing Partnership creates and preserves affordable and sustainable homes for Californians with low incomes by providing expert financial and policy solutions to nonprofit and public partners. Since 1988, the Partnership's on-the-ground technical assistance, applied research, and legislative leadership has leveraged $37 billion in private and public financing to preserve and create more than 96,000 affordable homes. 

Visit us at www.chpc.net.

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