\u201cWe\u2019re just not building them,\u201d state Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) said of condos. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the elephants in the room of homeownership in California. … You kind of don\u2019t have a choice if you\u2019re a young family looking [to buy] a house.\u201d<\/p>\n
Between 2011 and 2021, just 3% of all new multi-unit housing in California was condominiums. In Canada, which has a comparable population to the Golden State, condos made up almost 40% of newly built multifamily housing during that decade.<\/p>\n
Condos are typically located in urban areas near jobs and mass transit, and cost about 15% to 30% less than single-family homes \u2014 a difference that could save buyers almost $100,000 on a down payment in some parts of California, such as the Bay Area, according to an analysis by Zoocasa<\/a>. <\/p>\n The San Diego Trolly whizzes past condominium complexes in downtown San Diego.<\/p>\n (Sandy Huffaker\/For The Times)<\/p>\n And now, there\u2019s a growing coalition trying to revive condo construction in California by reforming a decades-old law that housing advocates and developers say has put a stranglehold on condo development. <\/p>\n Why condo building slowed to a crawl<\/p>\n They date the problem back to 2002, when a new state law required builders to repair, or provide payouts for, defective construction for up to 10 years on condos, townhomes and single-family homes. In theory, this construction defect liability law standardized the process to ensure that homes are built safely, giving homeowners the power to demand repairs and builders the opportunity to make them.<\/p>\n In actuality, housing experts say, it has led to frequent and often expensive litigation, which might not end with requested repairs. Such lawsuits are most common with condo buildings because homeowner associations can easily sue on behalf of all residents, industry experts say, making for extensive cases, sometimes over minor, non-structural issues, or even unrealized future problems<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cWe have a system that incentivized litigation,\u201d said Muhammad Alameldin, director of growth for California YIMBY, a pro-housing policy group. \u201cWe want a system where [if] you have a defect, you can get it repaired immediately. It shouldn\u2019t go to the courtroom. Get the lawyers out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Alameldin has been part of an effort aimed at reforming that 2002 law, with the hope that clearer guardrails around repairs and related litigation will help encourage condo development. <\/p>\n But despite broad support \u2014 including the Habitat for Humanity, the city of Los Angeles and the California Building Industry Assn. \u2014 the bill that would have cemented those reforms never came up for the final vote it needed before the legislative session ended last month. <\/p>\n It\u2019s a major blow for lawmakers and advocates who have focused on this issue, but most are adamant that this won\u2019t be the end of the effort. <\/p>\n \u201cHousing policy is rarely simple. But if we want more Californians to have a shot at owning a home, we have to be willing to modernize laws that are no longer producing the outcomes they were intended to achieve,\u201d Wicks wrote in a post on social media<\/a> about the bill she sponsored, AB 1903<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cI have no doubt we can bring back something even stronger,\u201d she said after the bill died<\/a>. <\/p>\n Although many cities across California are building denser, multifamily housing complexes, most are apartments, which are covered by different construction liability laws. These for-rent units still provide much-needed housing but offer no pathway toward homeownership \u2014 long considered key to building wealth in the U.S<\/a>. In fact, high rents in some of these new developments, often branded as luxury apartments<\/a>, can make it difficult for renters to save for a home.<\/p>\n \u201cYou shouldn\u2019t have to \u2026 inherit a home or live an hour and half away from a city\u201d to own a home, Alameldin said. \u201cWe have to build homes where people want to live.\u201d<\/p>\n The condo boom \u2014 then bust<\/p>\n Condos in California really began to boom for the first time in the 1970s, when housing prices began to rise sharply.<\/p>\n Sticker shock left many moderate-income buyers \u2014 especially in pricier, urban areas \u2014 more open to buying in multi-unit or high-rise buildings, a trend that has often continued to play out when housing prices have skyrocketed. <\/p>\n Some condos were conversions of existing apartment buildings, but a building boom brought many new units onto the market by the1980s, when one real estate agent told the The Times<\/a> that condos \u201care really the only affordable housing choice left out here.\u201d <\/p>\n Despite several changes in the housing market, by the turn of the millennium, condos were once again hot<\/a> \u2014 but then the 2002 liability law went into effect, followed by the housing bust and the Great Recession.<\/p>\n When housing construction began to pick back up in the 2010s, condo projects in California never bounced back, according to data from a 2024 study<\/a> by UC Berkeley\u2019s Terner Center for Housing Innovation.<\/p>\n The study found that California\u2019s long window for construction liability claims, along with loose parameters for what constitutes a defect, led to an increase in such litigation, which ultimately drove up insurance and building costs. Together, that created \u201ca significant disincentive for developers and contractors to build new condominiums,\u201d the study found.<\/p>\n Can condos be part of a housing solution?<\/p>\n As California grapples with an unprecedented housing crisis \u2014 including some of the lowest homeownership rates in the nation, and increasingly older first-time buyers<\/a> \u2014 lawmakers say condos cannot be ignored. <\/p>\n \u201cCondos are such an important part of the housing stock,\u201d Wicks said, calling them key to providing \u201ca foot in the door for that first-time homebuyer.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe just don\u2019t have that for hundreds of thousands of people in the state right now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Wicks understands condos aren\u2019t the only type of housing the state needs \u2014 or even what all Californians want \u2014 but she said the multi-unit, for-sale buildings deserve the attention of state leaders. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s part of the overall solution,\u201d Wicks said of condos. She called them \u201ca big part of the equation in our housing crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n Assemblymember Lori D. Wilson (D-Suisun City), who co-sponsored the construction liability reform legislation with Wicks, worked for a home builder before joining the Legislature and said she saw firsthand how such litigation drove up costs for developers considering condo construction.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I came to the Assembly, that was something I wanted to focus on,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cI want to reduce the barriers.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789124529_69_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n