Construction of hotels has plunged in the Bay Area, a nosedive that was unleashed by stubborn problems for hotel financing and elevated construction costs, a new report from Atlas Hospitality Group shows. An estimated 15 hotels with an aggregate 1,610 rooms were under construction in the Bay Area during 2025, representing a sharp decline from the equivalent totals in 2024, according to the report from Atlas Hospitality. This news organization derived the totals from figures that Atlas Hospitality compiled for its report.
Last week I invited a market-rate developer as guest speaker in my graduate housing class at the University of San Francisco. I told him that invariably a student would ask him about the mayor's so-called "family" upzoning plan. His answer to the students was that it's essentially just political posturing, and won't have much impact on increasing supply. He's a developer, he knows: Development is all about costs and interest rates and financing.
Homebuilding executives remain downbeat, citing a range of current conditions marked by buyer hesitancy, economic uncertainty, shrinking profit margins, increased use of incentives, and high costs. However, homebuilders whose primary focus is the strained entry-level buyer segment face the biggest hurdles. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI)'s builder confidence gauge remained range-bound at a below-par level, rising one point to 39 in December.
Enacted within the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, BABA mandates the use of U.S.-produced iron, steel, manufactured products and construction materials in federally funded infrastructure projects. Flood argued that while this may be appropriate for infrastructure work, applying the same rules to housing projects has created severe cost spikes and delays. He said this expansion has created real-world consequences for developers, nonprofits and public housing agencies navigating the federal funding process. Sadly, that decision has had disastrous effects, he said.
The nuclear regulatory taskforce was set up by Keir Starmer in February after the government promised to rip up archaic rules and slash regulations to get Britain building. It issued a stark warning on Monday, warning that Britain needed a radical reset of the rules around nuclear power to save tens of billions in costs and reverse the industry's decline.
Is it cheaper to extend up or out? This is something I've been thinking about a lot just lately as I plan, early next year, to submit plans to do both as a way of adding some much needed space to the home we have decided to stay in rather than sell and move.
In fall 2017, Piccin and his wife lost their ranch house when the Tubbs fire roared through Northern California's famed wine region. Contractors found themselves in high demand and overbooked, and the one the couple hired abandoned the project halfway through. In the time it took to find a new builder, the price tag rose by a third to $2.4 million, forcing the Piccins to sell a rental property they owned to pay the bill.
Steven Mulholland, CEO of the Construction Plant-hire Association, says: "Construction costs have skyrocketed - this isn't a temporary squeeze, it's a structural problem making renovations increasingly unaffordable."
"While periodic work has been done to keep these buildings occupiable, neither building has seen a comprehensive renovation since they were first constructed."
