Santa Clarita City Manager Ken Striplin shared his initial budget outlook Tuesday for the city’s 2026-27 fiscal year with city commissioners and the City Council, and also highlighted a number of upcoming projects adding homes and businesses in the city.
Striplin mentioned in his report that the home market, in the state and California, has been somewhat stagnant since 2023.
However, the city is still expecting a number of plans to move forward this year that are bringing several thousand more homes, Striplin said.
“Several new development projects have been recently approved or are undergoing construction, demonstrating once again the growth in the city’s economy,” Striplin said.
Wiley Canyon is adding 352 homes; Bouquet Canyon is adding 375 homes; Sand Canyon Plaza is in the middle of adding 580 homes; Tesoro has approximately 300 homes of the 800 approved left to build; and, New Urban West is looking to build approximately 5,700 homes on the former Whittaker-Bermite site, which is now being marketed as Sunridge.
Wiley Canyon has been entitled for the construction of homes and commercial property, while the other plans are in the building phase. Sunridge is likely going before the council next year, according to Striplin.
Wiley Canyon also came up Tuesday, as well as two things that have occurred since the city’s approval: a writ of mandate has been filed by residents challenging the elements of the plan’s environmental review; and the longtime developer, Tom Clark, who’s also responsible for Sand Canyon Plaza, died Jan. 28 at age 81. Striplin said Clark’s development partner was planning to take over operations, and he was unsure how it might impact the lawsuit, but he did not anticipate an impact to Sand Canyon, as that project has been in construction.
These city projects don’t include about 4,000 more in the approval process from Los Angeles County for the unincorporated areas: more than 3,000 homes in North Lake just approved east of Interstate 5 and west of Castaic Lake; not far from there, The Trails at Lyons Canyon was approved for 510 homes west of The Old Road and south of Sagecrest Circle; and heading east, back toward Bouquet Canyon Road near Vasquez Canyon, Synactico Investments would like to add 281 homes on nearly 329 acres.
In their monthly reports, the Southland Regional Association of Realtors, a group that frequently analyzes market data, indicated that the availability of money due to high interest rates has been an issue for years.
While city officials said they anticipate action on these plans this year and the availability of more funding in 2026 — the Federal Reserve could cut the interest rate for banks in three consecutive quarters in 2026, based on the early forecast — but rising costs for fire-insurance rates are expected to negate it.
“Although interest rates are expected to drop in 2026, UCLA economists do not anticipate home sales to increase much as insurance rates in California negate any net increase,” Striplin said.
While the home sales market increased by 2.6% in the year-over-year data, in the last year, the amount of unsold inventory on the market grew by 9.1%.
Despite the growth in supply, the state’s median home price is expected to rise again — by 3.6% to $905,000, according to Striplin’s report — which the SRAR has said is an indicator of the strong demand locally, in its monthly reports.
In the city of Santa Clarita, the median listing price for a single-family home in December 2025 was $886,400, which is down from last year’s $898,600 for the same month.
However, the average number of days a listing spends on the market has shrunk, from 121 days last year to about 78 days this year for the same time period.
Striplin said the city also is expecting to bring an affordable-housing policy to the council in 2026 in response to a state law that mandates the city have a prescribed procedure for such projects in order to receive state housing funds.
