Is Vice President Kamala Harris on track to be the first Democratic president from California?

When President Joe Biden attempted to slam the door shut on Democrats’ pleas for him to withdraw, it was former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who subtly, but very publicly nudged the door back open.

A newly created regional housing finance authority for the entire San Francisco Bay Area will send a bond of up to $20 billion to the ballot. But the fate of its statewide counterpart looks bleak.

The California Association of Realtors agrees not to oppose a constitutional amendment to reduce the voter approval threshold for housing bonds. In exchange, the measure will not apply to single-family homes. Some housing advocates are angry about the carve-out.

California utilities will shift billing to a fixed fee starting in 2025. Most Californians won’t see much change, or will have a lower bill.

The El Dorado County case before the state's highest court about impact fees could have huge consequences for new housing construction in California.

California lawmakers made an effort in 2023 to remove red tape around building new houses.

More than 100 developers backing 240 projects with approximately 20,000 proposed affordable housing units applied to the state's Housing and Community Development Department for more than $3.5 billion, but the state only has $576 million to award. 

Why did the homelessness crisis become more dire in 2023, even as the Legislature passed more affordable housing laws? Home prices and rents are still increasing.

The state program has sent more than $4.7 billion to nearly 370,000 lower-income households, but a sizable, unlucky minority of applicants — tenants and landlords alike — have had to wait.

Speaker Robert Rivas seems to be laying the institutional groundwork for an aggressively pro-housing legislature next year.

The California Public Utilities Commission is considering a rule that would gut the payments that solar panels on apartment buildings receive. Why are so many housing groups mad about it?

Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara unveiled a plan to shore up the California insurance market for homeowners, in which insurers would return to wildfire zones, but would have an easier path to rate increases.

A patchwork of bills is giving housing developers and local governments more options to reduce red tape for housing projects.

Instead of the two-thirds supermajority required for local bond measures, legislators are considering a proposed threshold of  55%. Had that standard been in place in 2018, San Jose, Santa Cruz County, Berkeley, San Diego and Santa Rosa would have been granted the power to borrow a total of $2.26 billion.

Three of the biggest housing bonds in state history are bound for the 2024 ballot. But with no shortage of crises facing the state, California can only borrow so much and voters may succumb to bond fatigue.