More of this, please.

The Urban Land Institute in the San Francisco Bay Area surveyed 701 adults in the nine-county region, through live interviews on landlines and cellphones in February this year. You can access it here [PDF].  The results say a lot about the regional housing shortage and clear desire for transit-oriented housing.

According to the study, only 40 percent of respondents have confidence in the affordability of the region’s housing, compared to 56% for residents in similar-sized regions around the country. That really speaks to the severity of the housing shortage in the region, particularly for millennials.  Put another way, almost two out of three residents feel the area is unaffordable.

The survey also reveals a clear demand for walkable, infill-oriented communities:

• 68% place a high or top priority on walkability for a home, compared to 50% nationally
• 50% want convenient access to transit from their home, compared to 32% nationally
• 50% want more bike lanes in their community, compared to 48% nationally
• 74% satisfied with existing housing types, compared to 81% nationally

Some obvious policy responses to this survey: build more walkable, transit-friendly communities, and build a lot of them — quickly.  Of course, easier said than done, given that local governments routinely resist this development.