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MortgagePoint » Your Trusted Source for Mortgage Banking and Servicing News 72 August 2025 J O U R N A L of a home over 30 years old cost more last year than a home built in the past five years. The other three metros were found in California: Oxnard, San Jose, and San Francisco. Raleigh, North Carolina, rounded out this top five list, with the typical sold home being nine years old. BOOSTING HOUSING AFFORDABILITY IN THE GOLDEN STATE C alifornia Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed legislation as part of the state's 2025-2026 budget, enacting new laws that will advance housing and infrastructure. These measures, including Assembly Bill 130 (Committee on Budget) and SB 131 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review), advancing more afford- able housing and infrastructure as part of California's Abundance Agenda. Together, the two budget trailer bills include a package that breaks down long-standing development barriers, mod- ernizes California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review for critical housing and infrastructure, and creates new tools to speed up production, reduce costs, and improve accountability across the state. "This isn't just a budget. This is a budget that builds. It proves what's possible when we govern with urgency, with clarity, and with a belief in abun- dance over scarcity," Gov. Newsom said. "In addition to the legislature, I thank the many housing, labor, and environmental leaders who heeded my call and came to- gether around a common goal—to build more housing, faster, and create strong, affordable pathways for every Californian. Today's bill is a game changer, which will be felt for generations to come." For decades, barriers have stood in the way of progress, blocking the urgency that would allow the state to address housing scarcity and better provide Cali- fornians with what they need: affordabili- ty and greater housing access. Climate change has also impacted the housing landscape in California, as wildfires earlier this year in the Los Angeles area had a significant impact on government housing-related programs, the insurance market, affordability, and delinquencies, with many of the effects reaching far beyond the regions of the fires themselves. Before the Hughes Fire erupted in northern Los Angeles during the third week of January, some estimates already put the losses as high as 1.6% of the Los Angeles housing market, with more than 24,000 housing units destroyed and more expected to be lost. The housing and infrastructure package delivers foundational reforms to break down systemic barriers and help ensure California can meet the housing needs of current and future generations. "With these historic laws, we finally have the tools we need to move the needle on affordability in California," Sen. Scott Wiener said. "It isn't easy to make changes this big, but Californians are demanding an affordable future, and it's our job to deliver for them no matter what. I'm incredibly proud of the work Governor Newsom, Assemblymember Wicks, Speaker Rivas, and my friend and partner Pro Tem McGuire did to push this bold package across the finish line and set us on a path to build again in California." The framework of the new legislation delivers: • CEQA Reforms to accelerate housing and infrastructure by streamlining CEQA review to speed up delivery of housing and infrastructure projects— including infill housing, high-speed rail facilities, utilities, broadband, community-serving facilities, wildfire prevention, and farmworker hous- ing—while maintaining protections for natural and sensitive lands. Also exempts local governments' rezoning from CEQA as part of their imple- mentation of approved housing elements to accelerate site readiness. • Faster housing permitting and approvals by expanding the Permit Streamlining Act, limiting certain Coastal Commission housing ap- peals, speeding up Coastal permit- ting, and making permanent key provisions of the Housing Account- ability Act and Housing Crisis Act. • Regulatory stability to help control costs by freezing new residential building standards through 2031, with exceptions for emergency, fire, and conservation-related updates. • Sustainable financing tools, includ- ing a revolving fund to reinvest equi- ty from stabilized affordable housing into new developments through the Affordable Housing Excess Equity Program, and by establishing a state- wide CEQA VMT Mitigation Bank to provide an optional compliance tool to allow developers to more effectively fulfill their existing CEQA mitigation obligations by funding location-efficient affordable housing and infrastructure projects. • More accountability and enforce- ment by strengthening oversight of local homeless shelters by requiring annual inspections by cities and counties—whether or not com- plaints are received—and provides stronger enforcement by allowing civil actions by both individuals and the Department of Housing and Community Development, and also requires annual reporting from all jurisdictions and authorizes the state to withhold funding from cities or counties that fail to comply. • Supporting renters by more than doubling the Renters Tax Credit, subject to future appropriations, increasing the credit to up to $500 for qualified filers. "Counties strongly support the CEQA overhaul in the state budget package," CSAC President and Inyo County Super- visor Jeff Griffiths said. "No longer will CEQA be leveraged to stall critical county wildfire, water, and housing projects. This legislation will make California more affordable for families by helping to alleviate our housing crisis and, in turn, reducing homelessness." Douglas J. McCarron, President,