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California ranked as the toughest state in the nation for first-time home buyers, who typically would be in the millennial age bracket of 18 to 34, according to a recent report by Claes Bell, an analyst with Bankrate.com. . . California consumes one of the highest percentages of people’s income for housing. Folks in that typical first-time home buyer age range, anywhere from the mid-20s to early 40s, are going to have a difficult time in many cases finding room in their budget for a California-sized mortgage payment.

Prices soared 11.4 percent higher across the nine-county region compared with the same month of the prior year, reaching a median price of $675,000 — the largest such increase in more than a year.

“The American middle class is shrinking and the median income of those considered middle class is decreasing. “”Nationally, the median income of middle-income households decreased from $77,898 in 1999 to $72,919 in 2014, a loss of 6%,”” reports Pew Research Center.”

“The flight from the nation’s major metropolitan area core counties increased 60 percent between 2015 and 2016, according to just-released estimates from the US Census Bureau (Note). A total of 321,000 more residents left the core counties than moved in, up from 199,000 in 2015. This is ten times the decade’s smallest domestic migration loss of 32,000 for the same counties which occurred in 2012. Suburban counties continued to attract net domestic migrants, at a somewhat higher rate than in recent years and much higher than in the early part of the decade. The suburban counties gained 235,000 domestic migrants in 2016, compared to 224,000 in 2014 and more than double the low point of 113,000 in 2011 (Figure 1). “

California State University’s governing board has approved a tuition increase that will raise the cost of an education by $270 a year at its 23 campuses.

After years of being overrun by new residents drawn by a red-hot economy, the number of people moving out has begun to catch up with the number moving in, new census data show. In fact, in some parts of the Bay Area — including Santa Clara, San Mateo and Marin counties — already more people are leaving than arriving, according to the estimates released Thursday, which cover the period from July 1, 2015, to June 30, 2016. The same would be true in San Francisco if it weren’t for the high number moving in from abroad.

Average monthly rentals in the Inland Empire rose 6.7 percent in February to $1,501 compared with $1,407 a year earlier. The region’s occupancy rate held steady at 95.7 percent, although it was up from 95.4 percent in February 2016.

California’s power-grid operators are dealing with a glut of daytime electricity produced by household, government, business and industrial solar installations. This forces the electricity prices on state’s real-time marketplace to plummet, leading some power-plant operators to shut down until demand catches up with supply later in the day. And increasing amounts of wind and solar energy are being wasted or “curtailed,” as they call it, because no one can use it, according to data obtained from the California Independent System Operator ( Cal ISO).

Recent labor agreements, costly court settlements and funding for combating homelessness are driving up expenses and could hamper plans to expand city services in the coming years, a new City Administrative Office report suggests. Despite an improving economy in Los Angeles, the report warns of “renewed fiscal challenges” for the city.

Although automakers had agreed to a 50-state standard, Trump’s unexpected victory last year gave them an opening to plead that the 2022-25 rules are unrealistic. During an era of historically low fuel costs, motorists are opting for SUVs and other relatively low-mileage vehicles, which also are the most profitable to produce and sell.

“In places such as New York and San Francisco, which offer the greatest array of high-paying jobs, rents and home prices have shot up beyond the reach of many young workers. The squeeze has even affected the Bay Area’s amply compensated technology workers, whose salaries often aren’t enough to offset the rapidly rising rents and housing costs. Technology workers who own a home in Seattle, by contrast, can expect to have about $2,000 more of disposable income left over each month after paying housing costs and taxes than those who live in San Francisco, according to a new analysis by Zillow and LinkedIn Corp. released Thursday.”

As California lawmakers debate the future of the state’s battle against global warming, there’s one politically sensitive issue they’ll have to consider: gas prices. . . drivers could see the price per gallon of gasoline increase by 45 cents. A separate policy, known as the low-carbon fuel standard, is also expected to increase gas prices.

Thirty cities including New York and Chicago jointly asked automakers for the cost and feasibility of providing 114,000 electric vehicles, including police cruisers, street sweepers and trash haulers, said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who is coordinating the effort. That would be comparable to about 72 percent of total U.S. plug-in sales last year.

Now, a new report shows that rents have been rising even faster for houses, which are preferred by families and others seeking a bit more living space.

A legislative hearing is scheduled for Wednesday on Brown’s effort to expand cap and trade, which requires companies to buy permits to release greenhouse gas emissions.