Dive Brief:

• Excessive home prices in California are responsible for a range of economic woes, from poverty to long commuting times, according to a report by the state Legislature.

• The average home price there is $440,000, more than two times the national average, and the average monthly rent is $1,240, double the national norm, according to The Wall Street Journal. Prices are high, in large part, because of restrictions on high-density development in the state’s coastal areas, which kept housing growth to 20% in Los Angeles and San Francisco between 1980 and 2010. Nationally, growth was 54%, the newspaper reported. The lack of supply has pushed prices on existing inventory skyward.

• The result: Businesses are having a hard time recruiting employees, who can’t afford to live in the state; metro areas are overcrowded; homeowners and tenants pay a disproportionate amount of their incomes toward housing; and fewer Californians are able to buy homes, the report said.

Dive Insight:

A twist: While high-density homebuilding might ease some of the problems associated with the lack of housing, consumers have said they don’t want to live in high-rises or crowded neighborhoods.

“It appears to us that people, given their choices, would prefer to have a single-family detached residence on their own, on a plot of land somewhere,” David Cogdill, CEO of the state Building Industry  Association, told the newspaper. “That continues to be the premier product.”