Los Angeles and Long Beach rank among the world’s least affordable cities for homebuyers, , according to a recent Los Angeles Times analysis, with a single buyer earning the local average salary able to afford only 28% of a typical home’s price. Limited housing construction, strong job markets, and the region’s amenities have driven prices to historic highs, surpassing cities like New York, Paris, and Singapore. California homes are roughly twice as expensive as the typical midtier U.S. home, with an average price of $755,000 as of December.

Michael Lens, professor of urban planning and public policy at UCLA, said the “writing has certainly been on the wall” for California’s housing market to be considered the most expensive in the world.

California’s draws include its “unparalleled amenities” and strong job market, Lens said. But “we make it very challenging to build enough homes to satiate the demand. That combination of low supply and relatively high affluence for some parts of our country make the baseline of an entry-level home very expensive.”