SAN DIEGO, CA

San Diego is in many ways a microcosm of the rest of California. Decades of expansion and single-family zoning laws caused the city to grow outwards instead of upwards.

Today, San Diego occupies an area about the size of Connecticut. Thanks to the mountains surrounding the city, however, land available for development is disappearing fast. This has caused developers to turn their focus to the city center and push for higher-density housing. Today, the residential sector makes up more than half of all construction volume in the city, with multifamily projects making up a larger and larger share each year. This trend is expected to continue. 

The residential sector is predicted to remain the largest through at least 2024. San Diego is in need of new housing, but it will soon be in serious need of new schools, offices, roads, and everything else that makes a neighborhood feel like a neighborhood. The construction labor force has been growing steadily in anticipation, which should be enough to offset increased demand and keep labor costs from rising too much.  

* Other structures include religious buildings, amusement, government communications, and public recreation projects.