With these rules, is it any surprise that a typical house costs so much more in CA ($816k) than the average cost ($354k) in the US?

Dan Waylonis's comment is off the mark for a couple of reasons. 1) The MV Reach Code applies only to MV, not all of California. 2) The previous reach code only affected new buildings that pulled their permits after 1/1/2020, and the updated code will only apply to permits pulled after 1/1/2023.

Still confused by "The new reach code requires new buildings to add enough solar pre-wiring to cover all the building’s electricity needs, rather than the 50% solar panel requirement."

Does it mean that the new reach code doesn't require any Solar Panel?
.... but enough wiring for solar panels to eventually provide all the bulding's electricity needs?

In multi-family homes it's unlikely there is enough roof area to have enough solar panels to provide all these needs, is the City mandating over-wiring?

There's some truth to Dan's comment, but you can barely buy a doghouse in MV for $816k. There must be some other mechanism at work that makes homes here cost 3x that. Let me think, what could it possibly be?

Just an observation.

Fed raised rates again today .75%, thus mortgages will minimum raise by .5%, they are currently at 7%, so they will reach 7.5% in a month. Dec. will see another .75% fed increase.

Face it the bubble is popping here, this city only has luxury housing, which is the ones that will crash harder.

Even rents are going to go down. And since there is no sign of layoffs slowing in the county, you are seeing a major perfect storm.

I can only imagine the drop in revenues the City is looking at for the next 5 years.

And worse, the City Inspections are violating CA Codes. Even when they cannot. I loved it when Lisa pointed out the City really has no choice, it must follow State Laws and Codes.

I was in the process of building a home in Sonoma county, and was under the impression that all new homes in California had to be net-zero. Title 24 I think its called. So even without MV mandating solar panels, new residences would need to do something to offset energy use.

JUst an observation,

The City has been reluctnt to comply with updated Electric safety state law. If any building permit is issued in the state, it requires that all electrivcla systems be inspected and upgraded for bothe electrical safety and seismic issues. But the City of Mountain view has been flagrantly not complying with those laws.

In face I veleive bot Cupertino and Sunnyvale adopted that requirement years ago.

THe reason why is that most buildings in Mountain view are much older than people think. Thuse the electrical wiuring and distribution systems are way out of date. This was one reason why so many have attempted to avoid changing over to electrical heating, hot water, and appliances. The current upscaling will render current electrical systems as unqualified for use for occupation under the codes.

Another devastating cost to prevent the already devastating loss of home and apartment values.

My building had an inspection done in 2015 and it clearly stated that the electrical panels themselves were deficient, that they need to be replaced due to known safety problems. But my new owner didn't even bother to read it.

The facts are for such a "educated" and "advanced" city, its rules and regulations are YEARS behind current standards. Again why is materials used in building not tested first before construction, why is that not required by the city building permit requirements? All the work done here is gambling on whether the defects will not appear within a year. There is going to be a lot of defects that are going to be resolved during the next 5 years of the so called NEW construction. Proper construction DOES NOT have that problem.

WHY NOT PREVENT PROBLEMS?