Today, home values in California are more than double the national average, with high rents and low homeownership rates — and the number of homeless people is growing. In part because of devastating wildfires, insurance companies keep dropping those who can buy homes from their policies.
After cruising to reelection in 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s approval rating is underwater, with a majority of California adults — 53 percent — disapproving of the way he is handling his job.
That might help explain why even in this Democratic stronghold, and even after California Democrats flipped three House seats in November, the posturing ahead of Trump’s return to office has been disjointed. Fearful of Trump’s agenda on everything from abortion rights to electric vehicles and immigration, Newsom called a special session of the legislature to bolster the state’s legal defenses, saying California “won’t sit idle.”
But he also promised to approach the administration with an “open hand, not a closed fist.” And he embarked on a post-election jobs tour that took him through some of the state’s more conservative reaches. It was a tacit acknowledgment by Newsom of his party’s losses with working class voters.
