Moderated by Rick Wartzman, Director of The Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University

In recent months, much of the attention in Southern California real estate circles has been on sinking home values, with the median price off nearly 20% from its peak of last spring and summer. But this sharp drop only serves to mask what in many ways is an even harsher reality: Home prices remain ridiculously out of reach for most L.A. residents. The latest figures from the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo show that only about 6% of new and existing homes sold in the L.A.-Long Beach-Glendale area late last year were considered “affordable” to those earning the median family income of $61,700. That makes this region the least affordable housing market in the country???an ignominious status it has held for 13 consecutive quarters. It’s no wonder that, in turn, L.A. has one of the nation’s lowest homeownership rates. Meantime, the subprime loan crisis and mortgage industry meltdown have brought their own complications, with ever-tighter requirements now being placed on low- and middle-income borrowers. Rick Wartzman, director of the Drucker Institute and an Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation, will explore what, if anything, can be done to turn around the situation by hosting a conversation with three distinguished panelists: Sean Spear, director of major projects for the Los Angeles Housing Department; John Karevoll, a housing market analyst with DataQuick Information Systems; and Ehud Mouchly, vice president of UniDev, a workforce housing developer.