Housing underproduction in California reached a shortage of 881,354 homes in 2021 for a first-place ranking among U.S. states for the severity of its housing deficit, according to Up for Growth. On a metro area basis, Ventura County led with a 12.5% gap between home construction and local needs, while the state overall contains 11 of the 25 metro areas with the biggest shortages. 

Other California metro areas in the top 25 include the Inland Empire, Madera, Salinas, Merced, Stockton, Visalia, Los Angeles/Orange County, Vallejo, Yuba City and Modesto. Their housing deficits ranged downward from 10.7% to 7.6%. 

Nationwide housing underproduction reached 3.9 million homes in 2021, a 3% jump from 2019, according to Housing Underproduction in the U.S. 2023, a longitudinal study of housing trends. The report also shows a national housing deficit spreading to America’s suburbs, small towns, and rural areas – a dramatic shift from earlier findings that revealed a crisis driven primarily by shortages in U.S. coastal and urban areas.