Workforce Housing Scorecard for Los Angeles

September 8^th, 2008

Workforce Housing Scorecard for Los Angeles has been published by the Los Angeles Business Council.

This publication by the Los Angeles Business Council looks at housing supply, affordability and density in L.A. County in relation to the County's changing demographics and job growth.  Some of the issues examined include: the impact of housing affordability on employee retention, new housing units produced in relation to increased population growth, ratio of new housing to new jobs, the impact of housing prices on job and population growth, the impact of housing density and locations on future commutes, and more.   A scorecard is presented that includes the 88 cities in L.A. County and 7 area planning commissions of the City of L.A. ranking these places on the following measures: total job growth, total housing growth, jobs to housing ratio, and change in housing density.  Data is used to look at history (from 1990) as well as future trends to 2035.

Selected Findings:

• Between the years 1990 and 2007, L.A. County gained a little over 1.4 million people, but added only a little over 190,000 housing units over the same period (pg. 7).
• About two-thirds, or 65% of new housing in L.A. County between the years 1990 and 2007 was built in four cities: Los Angeles, Lancaster, Palmdale and Santa Clarita (pg.19).
• The Los Angeles-Long Beach metropolitan area was found to be the least affordable area in the nation in 2007in terms of housing costs (pg. 5).
• Over 1.4 million commuters enter and leave L.A. County for work every day (pg. 13).
• More than a quarter of a million (or about 280,000) homes need to be constructed in L.A. County between 2006 and 2014 just to keep up with population growth (pg. 14).