From Zero to 2,000: Mahan’s Housing Miracle

From zero to 2,000. That’s not a typo. San Jose built ZERO market rate homes in 2024. Then Matt Mahan cut the fees, eliminated the construction tax, and 2,000 homes broke ground in 2025. This is what YIMBY policy looks like when someone actually does it—and it’s an INCREDIBLE amount of housing.

The Zero-to-2,000 Miracle

The approvals existed. The projects were permitted. But nothing got built because costs were just too high. That was San Jose in 2024—a city paralyzed by its own fee structure while neighbors watched housing prices climb and climb.

Then Mahan passed the Multifamily Housing Incentives Program in December 2024. The details: a 50% cut to the city’s construction tax, reduced fees across the board, and streamlined permitting. Simple stuff. The kind of changes that politicians love to talk about but never actually do.

Archived tweet

Matt Mahan helped get over 2,000 homes built in 2025 in San Jose, when the year before, absolutely zero market rate homes were built. You can build housing and make space for people and create prosperity for everyone, all at the same time. https://t.co/bxhuhmWiNd https://t.co/stSXOlEkcN [Quoting @MattMahanHQ]: To build more housing, we need to lower the cost of building new homes–reduce fees, lower the cost of capital, speed up permitting, and streamline regulations. We’re already doing it in San Jose. We can do it for every Californian. https://t.co/lFOqGfeJJV

Garry Tan @garrytan February 04, 2026

The results speak for themselves: 2,000+ homes broke ground in 2025, with another 2,000 expected in 2026. As Mahan’s campaign site puts it: “We eliminated construction taxes. Last year, we got over 2,000 new homes under construction that had been stuck in the pipeline for years.”

The $8,775 NIMBY Tax

You can build housing and make space for people and create prosperity for everyone, all at the same time. That’s not just feel-good optimism—there’s hard economics behind it.

Archived tweet

YIMBY policy of building all kinds of housing including market rate is not just an idea. It is actually a path to creating the vibrant prosperous cities. Economists estimate every American loses more than $8,775/year in lost wages because of NIMBYs. https://t.co/eJT4CFFdtA

Garry Tan @garrytan February 04, 2026

YIMBY policy of building all kinds of housing including market rate is not just an idea. It is actually a path to creating the vibrant prosperous cities. Economists estimate every American loses more than $8,775/year in lost wages because of NIMBYs. That’s real money—the difference between affording rent and getting squeezed out.

Market rate housing isn’t some “necessary evil” we tolerate on the path to affordable housing. It’s good. It creates supply. Supply brings costs down for everyone. The alternative is watching $5,000/month 1BR apartments become $10K/month within a decade while Sacramento politicians wring their hands about “affordability.”

California Needs This Statewide

Mahan is running for Governor in 2026 on a “back to basics” platform. The pitch is simple: what worked in San Jose can work for all of California. Cut fees. Lower the cost of capital. Speed up permitting. Streamline regulations. This isn’t rocket science—it’s just competence.

Meanwhile, the Sacramento establishment talks endlessly about housing while creating obstacle after obstacle. They’ve had years to fix this. They haven’t.

Matt Mahan is the future of California. He proved it’s possible in San Jose. Now he’s running to prove it for every Californian. Join the campaign at mahanforcalifornia.com.