This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, September 1st, 2021.

I'm Caleb Brown.

California has a housing problem, some of the highest housing prices in the country,

some of the most substantial homelessness problems

in American cities as well. Nolan Gray is a housing researcher at the University of California

he argues that decades of housing under production and the regulatory environment have contributed to the state's biggest problems.

We spoke in July in Rapid City, South Dakota.

California is a special state when it comes to housing. It has, it alarms people, it surprises people to learn that

California has the highest rate of homelessness in the United States and you know for such a big state and a state that has such wealth

it's it doesn't necessarily make a lot of sense until you dig into the policies

what has in your, what has given California its state right now with regard to the

expense of housing and the difficulty that people are having, finding it?

Yeah, well, you know, if you look at the data, California is an incredibly unusual position here where

at you know, on the one end they have some of the highest housing prices in the country,

second only to Hawaii for obvious reasons.

But they also have some of the highest homelessness rates in the country.

You see it when you go to a city like Los Angeles or San Francisco tent encampments.

Less extreme and less visible are the people moving out of the state because they just can't

afford an apartment or a young family can't afford to start her home?

Or they're cashing out.

Yeah, they're cashing out and buying a ranch in Oregon, like my aunt and uncle who I was just visiting.

So, you know, it works out for some people, but for other people it's been catastrophic and it's the inevitable result of decades of housing under production which really just comes down to California making it too hard to build. The regulations are too strict, the local

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