San Jose Mercury News: California’s housing meltdown is wreaking economic and personal havoc, but it won’t last forever. The state’s ever-growing population will soak up the now-vacant housing units in a year or two, and home building will resume, driven by the inexorable demand. Generally speaking, California needs about 200,000 units of new housing – single-family homes, apartments, condos or mobile homes – each year. During the development lull, however, there’s a great debate under way in a …