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Everyone in the state of California is acutely aware of the housing issues, and many are in fix-it mode, delivering innovations in product and process to solve for the issue. But, so many hurdles still exist that it may not get better any time soon.

Will the state deliver solutions? And will it be able to be a model for change for the rest of the country?

The Golden State is under supplied by 3.4 million homes to meet its current housing needs, according to a report on housing underproduction from Up for Growth California, a nonprofit research and advocacy group. The national shortfall is 7.3 million homes, which means California makes up about half of that total.

Not only does the state not have sufficient housing, but the housing that does exist is expensive, out-of-reach to people making median household incomes, said Mike Wilkerson of Econorthwest, an economic consulting firm, who co-authored the report.

Up for Growth released the report Wednesday at a forum that included California State Assemblymember David Chiu, Bay Area Council President and CEO Jim Wunderman, Denise Pinkston of development firm TMG Partners, and Carol Galante, head of the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley.

The Bay Area serves as a microcosm of the broader problem, Wilkerson said. From 1980 to 2010, the market had the highest price appreciation of anywhere in the country. Meanwhile, the amount of new housing added per resident was among the lowest in the country.

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