San Diego County Issued 11,673 Housing Permits Last Year — Most Since 2005

The city of San Diego has reached a significant milestone in its ongoing efforts to tackle the housing crisis by permitting more units in 2023 than in the past 17 years, Mayor Todd Gloria‘s office announced Monday.

In 2023, the county issued a total of 11,673 building permits, marking a 21% increase from the previous year, according to the Construction Industry Research Board.

City officials permitted 9,691 of those homes, accounting for 83% of the county’s total permits.

“This achievement is a testament to our ongoing commitment to building more housing that all San Diegans can afford,” Gloria said in his e-newsletter.

“It also serves as a call to action for other cities and unincorporated areas to step up their efforts in addressing a housing shortage that is driving up rents and home prices and causing many lower-income San Diegans to fall into homelessness,” he said.

Since 2015, San Diego County has been permitting an average of 9,000 to 10,000 homes annually, according to the Union-Tribune. The last time the region exceeded the 11,000 mark was in 2005, when 15,258 residential building permits were issued.