Why is California Unaffordable?

The New York Times reports:

California has the distinction of having the 11 least-affordable metropolitan areas in the country. One would need to go all the way down to 12th place — and across the country to the New York region's northern suburbs — to find a non-California metropolitan area on the least-affordable list of 2005.

Much of California is pretty. It has beaches and the mountains and, of course, the weather. But why are places like Salinas, which is surrounded by agriculture, topping places like Honolulu (No. 17) and Miami (No. 22) on the out-of-reach list?

There is no one answer, but demographers and public planners who study such trends say that a confluence of factors in California — both artificial and natural — have combined to create a particularly acute problem.

"California has both political and geographical constraints on building," said Dowell Myers, professor of policy, planning and development at the University of Southern California. "That drives up prices, and then it snowballs."

The geographical limits on developable land are the hills and the coast, while the political restrictions are state and local regulations that prevent building new homes, in response to both environmental and congestion concerns.

California has zoned out the middle class,so they don't have one in much of the state.This isn't a good sign for companies to expand in California.