In 2014, the Blue Sky Consulting Group completed an affordable housing cost study for the state of California’s housing agencies (The California Department of Housing and Community Development, the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee, the California Housing Finance Agency, and the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee). The study measured the factors that influence the cost of building affordable rental housing in California, analyzing data from hundreds of multi-family projects. The study utilized a regression analysis model to identify factors that are correlated with raising or lowering the costs of developing affordable housing in California. The analysis evaluated how factors such as parking requirements, economies of scale, community opposition, local design-review requirements, developer characteristics, and many others influenced the cost of developing affordable housing. In addition to the empirical analysis of multi-family housing development costs in California, this study also examined the social and economic impact of affordable housing to better understand the indirect benefits from the investment in subsidized affordable housing.