SLO County’s population growing faster than its supply of housing. Here’s where it ranks
Though San Luis Obispo County often suffers from a lack of available housing, a new report shows the growth of its housing supply falls in line with most U.S. municipalities.
According to a new report from Stessa, a housing analysis company, the SLO-Paso Robles housing market’s growth between 2010 and 2020 ranked 131st out of 227 small metros included in the report.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses, the housing market grew by 5.1%, adding 5,933 units over the decade. That growth ranked 235th out of all 378 metros in the report.
The SLO-Paso Robles housing market contained 122,256 units in 2020, the report said.
During that same time, SLO County’s population grew faster than its supply of housing, increasing by 6.4%.
California as a state performed similarly in housing market growth, ranking 33rd with a 4.9% gain between 2010 and 2020 while its population grew by 6.1%.
The state contained 14.2 million housing units in 2020, the report said.
Many other states saw similar mismatches in housing and population growth, the report said.
“From 2010 to 2020, 20 states added population at a faster rate than they added housing, a fact that was true even among most of the states that added housing the fastest,” the report said. “Of the top 10 states for housing growth over the last decade, only North Dakota, South Dakota and Delaware added housing faster than they added residents.”
Every state in the country posted positive housing growth between 2010 and 2020, from North Dakota’s 20.4% growth at the top and West Virginia’s 1.6% growth at the bottom.
That trend held for the majority of the 378 U.S. metros included in the study — only the 21 lowest-ranked metros saw their housing supply actually shrink between 2010 and 2020.
The very worst? Wilmington, North Carolina, which lost 28.6% of its housing stock over the decade. Also suffering double-digit losses were Kalamazoo-Portage, Michigan (-22.9%); Bloomington, Indiana (-13.6%); and Fort Smith, Arkansas/Oklahoma (-12.2%).
On the other end, the metros with the best housing growth were Salisbury, Maryland/Delaware (+387.2%); London, Kentucky (+160.9%); and Carbondale-Marion, Illinois (+133.5%).
The best housing growth in California was Visalia at +8.2%, ranked No. 152 overall, followed closely by Fresno and Bakersfield at Nos. 163 and 164 with +7.5% growth. The worst was Chico at -1.2%, ranked No. 368.
The report cited the the recovery from the 2008 recession as one of the main reasons for the slow growth seen in many U.S. metros in the 2010s.
“In the ensuing recovery, residential construction spending was slow to rebound but grew gradually from 2012 to 2018, before falling again amid interest rate hikes,” the report said. “It was not until the recent housing frenzy that residential construction began to accelerate.”
This story was originally published August 30, 2022 at 10:51 AM.
