Key points

• Supervisors resist higher fee. Sacramento County supervisors are not ready to raise the affordable housing fee, though staff says it has fallen short. They warned higher fees could drive builders to areas with lower ones. A consultant found new homes could handle up to $5 a square foot.
• Current fee raised $29 million. Builders pay $3.91 a square foot on new homes in the unincorporated county, about $8,600 on a typical house. From 2014 through 2024 the fee raised nearly $29 million, enough for about 84 affordable homes per 1,000 market-rate homes.
• Subsidy gap keeps widening. The fee has risen about 56% since 2014, but the public subsidy needed to fill the funding gap on each affordable home has more than doubled, to about $102,000.
• Owner-builder break likely narrowed. Owner-builders now pay nothing if they don't sell within two years, a break that cost the county nearly $2.7 million from 2014 to 2024. Supervisors want it limited to the first 3,000 square feet and a five-year hold.
• No votes taken yet. The session was only a workshop. Changes will be drafted next year, with a final vote expected at the end of 2027.