Matt Mahan | Building More Pathways to Homeownership

ousing affordability may look different from one community to another, but the questions confronting cities across the country are increasingly familiar: How do we build more housing? How do we make development financially possible? And perhaps most importantly, how do we create realistic pathways to homeownership?

San José Mayor Matt Mahan offered one city’s perspective on those questions during opening remarks at the National Hispanic Organization of Real Estate Associates (NHORA) Conference, held September 11, 2026, at Hayes Mansion in San José.

Speaking to an audience of real estate professionals, Mahan described a Silicon Valley economy where job creation has significantly outpaced housing construction.

“We have a supply problem,” Mahan told attendees.

According to Mahan, the region has added approximately six jobs for every new home built over the past 20 years an imbalance he says has contributed to rising prices and pushed working families farther away from employment centers.

For Mahan, addressing affordability begins with increasing supply.

The Cost of Building

Housing discussions in California have frequently centered on zoning, density, height restrictions and affordable housing requirements. Mahan argued that another issue deserves greater attention: the actual cost of getting housing built.

Land, labor, materials, development fees and other costs can make projects financially difficult to construct, particularly in high-cost markets such as Silicon Valley.

San José has responded in part by reducing certain development fees and creating incentives intended to encourage residential construction. City documents show San José has continued expanding residential incentive programs, including reductions in some parkland fees for qualifying downtown development.

Mahan told the NHORA audience that those changes are beginning to produce results, citing a significant year-over-year increase in new housing construction.

His larger argument was straightforward: communities cannot address housing affordability without making it economically possible to build more homes.

Michelle Juarez-Perry, National President of the National Hispanic Organization of Real Estate Associates (NHORA), with San José Mayor Matt Mahan during the NHORA Conference, held September 11, 2026, at Hayes Mansion in San José, California.

Building Across Income Levels

Mahan also challenged the idea that market-rate and affordable housing should always be viewed as separate conversations.

He argued that communities need additional housing across income levels and that new market-rate construction can create movement throughout the existing housing market as residents move from one home to another.

For the real estate professionals gathered at NHORA, that raises a larger question.

Increasing housing inventory matters, but where does homeownership fit into the equation?

Mahan acknowledged that much of the housing currently being developed in cities such as San José consists of rental properties. While rental housing remains an important part of the market, he said communities also need ways for people to gain an initial foothold in ownership and begin building equity.

One experiment underway in San José provides an interesting example.

A Different Entry Point Into Homeownership

In 2024, San José became the first California city to adopt provisions allowing qualifying accessory dwelling units, commonly known as ADUs, to be sold separately as condominiums. The policy followed changes in California law allowing cities to authorize such conversions.

The concept moved from policy to an actual home sale this year.

In June 2026, California’s first standalone ADU condominium sale closed in San José for $530,000. The newly constructed two-bedroom, one-bath home measures 749 square feet and includes private parking and separate utilities.

In Silicon Valley, where the cost of homeownership can put purchasing beyond the reach of many households, the sale represented something different: another potential entry point into the housing market.

Mahan referenced the sale during his NHORA remarks.

“It’s small, but it’s somebody’s home,” he said, emphasizing that the homeowner now has an asset in which they can build equity.

The example doesn’t solve the larger affordability challenge. But it demonstrates how one city is experimenting with different definitions of what an entry-level home can look like.

Creating More Choices

Mahan also pointed to San José’s efforts to streamline certain housing approvals, reduce development costs and encourage additional density around employment centers and transit.

The objective, he explained, is to give residents more choices about where and how they live while removing some of the obstacles that can prevent housing from being constructed.

Those efforts intersect with the work of many of the professionals attending the NHORA Conference.

Mortgage professionals, real estate agents, developers and housing advocates can help consumers navigate the path toward purchasing a home. But that pathway becomes increasingly difficult when available housing doesn’t exist at prices prospective buyers can realistically reach.

Housing supply, development, financing and homeownership are different parts of the same conversation.

A Conversation Bigger Than San José

Mahan closed his remarks by recognizing the real estate community as an important participant in efforts to increase housing production and expand opportunities for homeownership.

His comments offered a look at how one major city is approaching a challenge that extends well beyond Silicon Valley.

San José’s circumstances are its own. Its policies reflect the economics, housing market and political decisions of that community. Other cities will make different choices.

But the underlying questions aren’t unique to San José.

Across the country, communities continue to wrestle with how much housing to build, where to build it, what it costs to construct and whether working families will ultimately have an opportunity to own rather than rent.

There may not be a single answer.

San José provides one case study and an opportunity to examine what happens when a city begins experimenting with different ways of getting more homes built and creating additional pathways to ownership.