California built about 560,000 homes in the five years from April 2020 to January 2025, according to recently released estimates from the State Department of Finance. That’s just slightly more than the number of units Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state should aim to build each year when he was running for office — a goal he later walked back.
But some counties are building new units much faster than others. Even while California is facing a post-pandemic construction slump, several of its smaller and midsize inland counties have put up new homes at more than twice the speed as the state overall. Single-family homes spring up in especially large numbers in those regions, drawing residents from other parts of the state in search of homeownership.
San Benito County built homes at the fastest rate in California, with about 9% growth from 2020 to 2025. That reflected an increase of fewer than 2,000 new units for the small county located just south of San Jose, but it was more than double the rate of increase seen in San Francisco, whose housing stock grew by less than 4%, just below the state figure. Much of that San Benito growth occurred in the city of Hollister, which is an increasingly popular bedroom community for Silicon Valley workers.
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Marin County had the 10th-lowest rate of growth, at just over 1%, and the lowest among California counties with at least 100,000 homes in 2025. The county’s high cost of living has pushed out many of its low-income residents and led to declining school enrollment…