It’s not hard to find evidence of a building boom in Joshua Tree, where half-built houses are common sights along the unpaved roads—but many of these new homes are way out of the price range of most locals.
Out of the 891 homes (single-family and otherwise) permitted to be built in the Morongo Basin from 2018 to 2024, just 22% were allocated for lower-income households. A family of four in San Bernardino County with a household income of $89,500 or less is considered low-income, according to 2025 state classifications.
For context, someone working full-time at a job for $20 per hour earns $41,600 a year.
The Morongo Basin includes the town of Yucca Valley, the city of Twentynine Palms, and nearby unincorporated communities that are governed by San Bernardino County. These include Morongo Valley, Pioneertown, Landers and Flamingo Heights, as well as Joshua Tree, a community known for being the gateway to Joshua Tree National Park, which has exploded in popularity as a short-term rental and second-home destination.
Data from the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) analyzed by the Independent shows that since 2018, 386 single-family home permits have been issued for Joshua Tree alone, which is 49% of the 789 single-family home permits issued for the whole basin.
From 2018 to 2024, 151 homes in the Morongo Basin received certificates of occupancy, and about 41% of those homes were designated for lower-income households. (It’s unknown how many projects that received permits stalled during construction, never got off the ground, or were completed without a certificate of occupancy.) Put together, it shows that while we’re building houses, we’re not building enough—especially at the levels many longtime residents can afford.
The median home price in Joshua Tree, according to Zillow, is $489,000 as of July. The Independent went to the local Facebook pages to get some responses to this data.
As one Morongo Basin mom put it, “I’ve just accepted that I’ll be renting for the rest of my life.”
Just 47% of San Bernardino County households could afford an entry-level single-family home, according to county data. Rental prices are also going up; Zillow data shows that in Joshua Tree, rent is an average of $2,020 a month, up from about $1,850 last summer and about $1,650 in 2023.
“I’ve just accepted that I’ll be renting for the rest of my life.”
A commenter in the Moms of Yucca Valley Facebook group.
“Honestly, with my salary, I can barely afford rent. I’m flabbergasted by the current state of housing,” said a member of the Moms of Yucca Valley Facebook group.
One of the factors driving up costs is the popularity of the high desert as an investor’s market. San Bernardino County’s most recent Consolidated Plan, which outlines a five-year roadmap for planning priorities, even identified “that short-term rental housing may be negatively impacting the Joshua Tree area.”
One Yucca Valley resident who moved to the area with her family nine years ago from Glendale said they’re living with roommates to shoulder rental costs. Homeowners, too, are seeing the changes.
“My family moved here five years ago because Yucca was the only place we could afford to buy a house,” another mom said. “But our house has gone up in value over $100,000 since we bought it. We would not be able to afford buying a house in Yucca now.”
Kome Ajise, executive director of SCAG, told the Independent what everyone already knows anecdotally: The biggest housing challenge in the region is the under-production of housing units, especially affordable and workforce housing. SCAG helps guide policy and planning in the six-county region of Southern California, including tracking housing production.
Ajise said housing production across the region hasn’t reached set targets—but there are still reasons to be hopeful.
“The state’s Regional Early Action Planning (REAP) grants are supporting locally driven solutions to break down barriers and accelerate building, such as two grants totaling $5.7 million in San Bernardino County to form a regional housing trust that will create countywide funding for affordable housing, and a plan to identify and move suitable sites into housing development,” Ajise said in an email.
While it’s good news that there are plans in the works, many residents don’t have time to wait.
Another mom who shared her story with the Independent said her 20-year-old sons still live with her, because they can’t find a rental in their price range. While they’d like to move out, there’s simply no affordable first-time renter housing.
“We are all fighting over the same two rentals while high-priced homes sit empty,” she said. “We are literally stunting the growth and progress of this generation. They cannot take the next step into adulthood—because they can’t move out.”
This story was made possible in part by a grant from the IE Journalism Innovation Hub + Fund of the Inland Empire Community Foundation. To submit ideas, comments or questions to the Coachella Valley Independent about housing in the desert, head to this Google form.