Here's a number worth paying attention to: El Dorado County issued just 437 new housing permits in 2024. That's down from 608 in 2023, and a significant drop from the 669 issued in 2021. According to U.S. Census Bureau data tracked by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the county's construction pipeline has been contracting for three consecutive years.
That means fewer new homes are being built in El Dorado County at exactly the moment when demand — driven by Sacramento-area overflow, Bay Area migration, and remote worker relocation — remains steady.
El Dorado County issued just 437 new housing permits in 2024 — down nearly 30% from 2021 levels — while demand for foothill communities continues to grow.
For most land in the region, this wouldn't matter much. Undeveloped parcels without entitlements are a long way from becoming buildable homes — years of planning, environmental review, engineering, and county approvals stand between raw land and a construction permit.
That's precisely what makes Piedmont Oak Estates different. Our tentative map is already in hand. The engineering, environmental, drainage, grading, and county approvals — the work that takes most projects years to complete — is done. The final map is the next step, and it's a largely administrative process from where we stand today.
A Shovel-Ready Opportunity in a County Where Permits Are Shrinking
Fully entitled residential projects in El Dorado County are rare — and getting rarer. With new permits contracting year over year and California’s approval process consuming years of time and significant capital with no guarantee of success, the number of sites that have actually cleared the finish line is small. Piedmont Oak Estates is one of them.
With new permits at a multi-year low and approval pipelines running thin, a fully entitled 75-lot project with a tentative map in hand represents one of the most shovel-ready residential opportunities in the county. The work has been done. The path forward is clear. A builder or investor can step in at the finish line rather than the starting line.