Devin Lavelle
@devinlavelle
Husband, father, CRB Assistant Director (#CALeg CAGov research), cheerleader for Pocket-Greenhaven, @SacState & evidence-based governance, former @SacStateAlumni prez
In addition to counts and trends, the Eviction Lab provides demographic estimates, finding that Black renters are significantly more likely to face eviction:
#GoldenStat(e): @Princeton @evictionlab developed an Eviction Tracking System that provides monthly eviction data across 10 states and 37 cities. The tool does not include data from California. #CALeg @CAStateLibrary
Among Washington, D.C. and the 50 states, California ranks third from last in owner-occupancy rate at 55.9% (above New York and D.C.) and drops down a spot for HPOP at 41.2% (above D.C.). California’s difference between owner-occupancy rate and HPOP is the fifth largest.
The @MinneapolisFed released new data for this. HPOP focuses on 🧑🤝🧑 instead of homes, counting the homeowners in the numerator, only counting additional adults in the denominator. Under HPOP, the U.S. homeownership rate is 53.1%, a dif of 12.2% mostly due to adult children
In many cases, though, more adults besides the homeowners live in the home. This could be elderly parents, adult children, or adult roommates. Under existing data, all of those people would be effectively counted as homeowners.
The Golden Stat(e): Sunny CA officially leans on the sun more than gas Great news! Decades of work have culminated in an enviro milestone that the CA grid has recently met. According to the @EIAgov, util solar gen surpassed nat gas gen in CAISO over the first 5 mos of 2026.
A lot of folks seem to be feeling nostalgic about raising kids in the 80s. Checking the data, we see this era of kids experienced things like increasing teen pregnancy, crime rates, and drug use. #TheMoreYouKnow #ItWasThe80sMan
Check out the latest Golden Stat(e) on a topic near and dear to my hear, California's parks! Featuring data from @tpl_org @City_of_Irvine scores the highest, while @lacity.bsky.social brings up the rear.
The #GoldenStat(e): It’s July 1! (posted late) Did you get a raise? Maybe not. Sorry, we should not get you too excited. Many Californians did get a raise today, though. 🧵
To that end, @OEHHA, @CaliforniaEPA, developed the California Communities Extreme Heat Scoring System, also known as CalHeatScore in 2024. CalHeatScore uses historical data and weather modeling to rank the level of human health risk from extreme heat in the state.
#GoldenStat(e): Tracking the dog days of summer Sun marked the start of summer. At top of mind is...extreme heat. Data shows the # of extreme heat events in CA has steadily grown, both day and night. SF saw 98 nights w extreme heat in 14 – prior to 00, the high was 48 in 58
One category we find particularly interesting is “recreational books.” The BLS has been tracking books since 1997. Since that period, prices, overall, have more than doubled (increasing by 104.1%). Books, however, have actually slightly decreased in price.
#GoldenStat(e): What a Great Price for Books! Everyone knows about CPI from the @BLS_gov. CPI topline number says prices, overall, went up by 3.3% over the last year. That # is built from 243 item types within various categories. Food, for example, has 70+ items w/i it.
Respondents to both indexes are heavily influenced by their partisan points of view. The University of Michigan found that consumer expectations by party flipped when the White House changed hands in 2021.
The other major indicator, @Conferenceboard Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) tells a fairly different story. Confidence is relatively low, at 93.1, but was lower during much of the COVID-19 period and much lower during the Great Recession and other major downturns.
#GoldenStat: Consumers aren’t feeling confident … or are they? You may have heard that consumer confidence has recently hit all-time lows. @umisr Consumer Sentiment Survey dropped to 44.8 in May26, a steep decline from April’s 49.8, the 1st time below 50.0. #CALeg #Data
Today's the day! Get your vote in! Don't forget (and please don't feel the need to complain about) we're unlikely to know the second place finisher in the Governor's race tonight ... and that's okay! 🧵
#GoldenStat(e): Can #healthcare keep the labor market healthy? To answer, we turn to @CA_EDD LMID data. Developed in partnership with @BLS_gov, #employment #data is released monthly, and data is available broken out by industry and geography (state, county, and (MSA)). #CALeg #EconSky #DataViz 🧵
The GSS Data Explorer tool allows users to export custom data in bulk, creating time series, cross tabs, and nearly any other kind of breakdown you can imagine. Unfortunately, breaking down the data didn’t find many happy subgroups, either.
#GoldenStat: Don’t worry (about COVID, politics, etc.) be happy! USA used to be a very happy country ... then 2020 happened That’s what @UChicago econ San Peltzman found analyzing @GSS_NORC #data ... tracks societal change since 1972 creating a rich dataset of nearly 7k variables
𝗚𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁(e): 𝗣𝘂𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗽 𝟱𝟬 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝗽 Prop 50 redrew CA congressional districts mid-decade, starting w the 26 elections. @USC’s @CID_Research released a new CA Congressional Districts Mapping Tool w new districts cacd.cidvoterturnouttool.org/CD.html #CALeg
How did your district do? Check it out in the interactive and then read about the tool in the update Quick Hit: www.library.ca.gov/crb/quick-hi...
In recognition of Public Service Recognition Week, the Golden Stat shares the number of state and local employees in California from the @uscensusbureau, totaling 12.1% of the nation's state and local workforce in 2025. Data: data.census.gov/table/GOVSEM...
The second chart shows the effective rate paid for different countries goods, with China (currently 27.7%, with a high of 45.3% in May 2025) and Indonesia (18.2%) facing the highest effective tariff rates.
This week's issue of The Golden Stat(e) introduces the Everyday Price Index from @AIER, a better way to understand how #inflation is affecting families. March had the "2nd largest monthly increase since Jan '20", significantly higher than the CPI