Despite widely publicized efforts to significantly increase housing production in San Jose, the number of approved residential building permits in the City has fallen for the second year in a row. 2017 was the last year to see an improvement in permit numbers with 3,097 approved residential building permits, a 48% increase over 2016 numbers. However, the City approved just 2,973 (146 Affordable) units in 2018 and only 2,382 (134 Affordable) units in 2019. In a 2018 study of residential permits nationwide, San Jose’s housing output compared unfavorably to other cities with at least 50,000 population, coming in 35th nationally, well behind the other large California cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, and Oakland. To view a Housing Production report from the Ad-Hoc Committee on Housing Construction and Development Services, click HERE. To view a national residential production spreadsheet, click HERE.
