‘Gimme Shelter’: What happens when a millennial buys a house

Few places in the country are more expensive to buy a home than California, yet even here recent surges in home values have been astounding.

The median sales price in the state has gone up 12% over the past year for a single-family home, bringing it to $798,440, according to the California Assn. of Realtors. Homebuyers, especially first-time ones, are having to shell out more and more of their incomes and savings to get into the market.

On this episode of “Gimme Shelter: The California Housing Crisis Podcast,” we speak with one first-time, millennial homebuyer about how he was able to afford a home. That guest is Matt Levin, former co-host of Gimme Shelter, who is now a reporter for public radio’s Marketplace. Matt bought his house in Sacramento earlier this year, and we all discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic is changing the demand for what purchasers want out of a home.

We also reveal the Avocado of the Year, our choice of California’s zaniest housing story of 2021.

“Gimme Shelter,”a biweekly podcast that looks at why it’s so expensive to live in California and what the state can do about it, features Liam Dillon, who covers housing affordability issues for the Los Angeles Times, and Manuela Tobías, housing reporter for CalMatters.

You can subscribe to “Gimme Shelter” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Soundcloud and Google Podcasts.