The Central Coast doesn’t have a housing shortage—we have an affordability shortage (“The Central Coast desperately needs to build its way out of the housing crisis,” Aug. 14).
A quick look at today’s housing market tells the real story. On Aug. 4, 2025, Zillow showed 1,407 homes and lots priced over $1 million in our region. Compare that to only 267 listings between $700K to $1 million and just 114 between $550K to $700K. Even more troubling, there were only 174 homes in the $300K to $550K range and 128 listings between $150K to $350K—with a large share of those being vacant lots, not actual housing. For working families, teachers, firefighters, and young people trying to build a future here, that’s not a market—it’s a lockout.
This is what a broken market looks like: thousands of luxury listings but a shrinking supply of homes for working families, teachers, and young people trying to stay in the community. When the overwhelming majority of inventory is priced for millionaires, it’s no wonder local residents are being priced out.
Generation Build is right: Streamlined approvals, smarter zoning, infill development, and a real commitment to building at all levels of affordability are desperately needed. But we also have to be honest—if we keep building mostly luxury homes, we’re not solving a crisis. We’re pushing our neighbors out while speculators and investors move in.
Developers claim their projects will “add supply” and ease the crisis, but the numbers show otherwise. What we’re really building is more wealth for investors and fewer doors for families who need them most. A housing market dominated by million-dollar listings is not meeting the needs of our community—it’s abandoning them.
This is about more than numbers on Zillow. It’s about whether our kids can grow up and afford to stay here, whether our seniors can downsize without leaving their community, and whether the people who keep this region running can afford to live where they work.
Building more homes matters—but what we build, and who it serves, matters even more.
K. Rosa
Nipomo
This article appears in Sep 11 – Sep 18, 2025.