A recent BuildZoom study ranked the nation’s toughest zip codes to build in, putting Venice Beach (90291) at the top of the list. The study identifies these tough-to-build areas as ones where an increasing willingness to pay for housing fails to result in more housing being built.

For Venice, that dynamic has resulted in a loss of 700 housing units from 2011 to 2015, a 4.31 percent reduction of the total inventory. BuildZoom attributes this change to its lack of available lots (Venice is a pretty crowded area after all). One could also look at Snap and other companies’ sprawl throughout the neighborhood as a reason for the reduction. The Real Deal says Venice hasn’t gained a housing unit in over 15 years now.

Courtesy of BuildZoom

Venice was not the only Los Angeles-area zip code cited, however. In fact, the entire LA market was actually identified as one of the two toughest metro areas to build in (along with Honolulu, which topped the list). Highland Park (90042), Newport Beach (92663), Hollywood (90038), Echo Park/Silver Lake (90026), and Santa Monica (90405) were also among the 15 toughest neighborhoods to build in. 

As study author Issi Romem notes, there’s a commonality with a lot of these zip codes nationwide: 

[QUOTE]Because the inner suburbs have been around longer than more distant suburbs, the inner suburbs are more likely to have depleted their supply of vacant lots, leaving no room for “acceptable” new construction.[/QUOTE]

That would certainly appear to be the case in all six crowded, mostly beachy Southern California zip codes above.