It's a lot like dusty prospectors packing up and leaving a mother lode of gold that's been tapped out.

The massive home building shortfall in California has sparked an exodus of homebuilders leaving regions that were once housing boom towns.

California home builders have long held that the state needs 250,000 new homes every year to keep homes affordable.

This year, however, they plan to produce a paltry 79,000 new homes -- fewer starts than in any year since 1954, according to the California Building Industry Association.

But California housing has become more affordable anyway.

That's because housing woes have left California as one of the nation's hardest hit states when it comes to foreclosures, tight credit, home sales declines and subsequent dips in home values.

New single-family home starts are down from 55 percent from a year earlier, the association reported. Actual production for the first quarter was off more than 48 percent.

And at least one builder president and CEO, Don Tomnitz with D.R. Horton, recently told the Associated Press conditions for the new home market are not likely to improve until 2010.

Some of the woes are being exacerbated by the fear of buying in a market where home prices could decline further.

However, as the value of California's once golden new home market diminishes, brave buyers are finding a silver lining.

The California Association of Realtors (CAR) recently reported 44 percent of the state's households could afford to buy an entry-level home during the first quarter this year.

That's almost double what it was a year ago, at 26 percent.

Published: June 9, 2008

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.