The Terner Center for Housing Innovation released a report on California’s homeownership challenges entitled The First Step is the Hardest: California’s Sliding Homeownership Ladder, which finds that the number of homeowners in the State continues to decline, with only 43.5% of all adults owning a home in 2021, which is “more than 15 percentage points lower than the rest of the United States.” California’s homeowners are also considerably older than the rest of the nation, with notable declines in the rate of homeownership for residents in the 25–45-year age bracket. Not surprisingly, it is the State’s high housing costs that are impacting the ability of renters to achieve homeownership. The report includes data and evidence as well as a variety of policy recommendations to improve access to homeownership. Recommendations include increasing the supply of homes, eliminating barriers, reducing development costs, tackling construction defect liability challenges, and increasing State homebuyer assistance program funding.