I came across a really important piece from HousingWire that shines a light on something I talk about with clients constantly: how slow permitting is strangling housing development in our most expensive markets. Researchers from the University of Chicago and Princeton did the math on this, and the findings are eye-opening. They analyzed over a million permits across 60 cities over the last 25 years and found that permitting delays account for 30% to 43% of the difference in how long it takes to build housing between fast cities and slow ones. This isn't just developer griping anymore; it's backed by solid data showing that slow approvals are a real, measurable problem.
The numbers tell a stark story when you compare high-cost cities to faster-moving markets. San Francisco takes nearly four years to build a single-family home and almost five years for a 20-unit apartment building, while a similar project in Raleigh gets finished before San Francisco even gets approval. What's fascinating is that much of that difference isn't about actual construction time; it's about waiting for permits and approvals. The researchers calculated that reducing approval speeds in cities like Los Angeles to Texas-level standards could cut development costs by 21% of construction costs.
A lot of states are now taking action to fix this. According to the article, 18 states including California, Texas, Georgia, Florida, and Washington have passed laws that force local governments to approve or deny permits within specific timeframes, or the application gets automatically approved. Texas went the furthest with a 30-day deadline for plat reviews. These aren't theoretical changes either; a developer building an apartment project in Florida under the state's Live Local Act saw their approval timeline drop to about 14 months from the typical 18 to 24 months, even though the developer noted this was still slow compared to Midwestern standards.
California and San Francisco are actively working on their own fixes. The state passed laws requiring faster approvals for affordable housing and set a 60-day deadline for certain housing permits statewide. San Francisco launched PermitSF in 2025 using new software to speed up the process, though so far it's only being tested on simpler permit types like fire alarms. The real test will come when the system takes on entitlement and building permits for new housing construction, which hasn't happened yet. Right now there's no clear timeline for when that phase will roll out, so it remains to be seen whether San Francisco's new system will actually move the needle on housing supply.
What I am seeing locally is that permitting timelines remain one of the biggest bottlenecks for both builders and buyers trying to get new housing built in the Bay Area. Our region sits right there with San Francisco as one of the slowest in the nation, and even with state pressure and new software systems, we're still working through a system that was built to move slowly. The gap between approval times in the Bay Area and places like Raleigh or Phoenix translates directly into higher housing costs for families and fewer homes hitting the market when we need them most. Until we can get our entitlement process moving faster, we're fighting an uphill battle on supply.
