Low inventory in the Bay Area has long been cited as a leading factor in the high price of homes for sale. Now a new report for the National Association of Home Builders assets that a tight labor supply in the home construction industry is also a major contributing factor.

While new home construction is now on the increase after a decade of decline, home builders have reported a serious shortage of workers and many – 68 percent – have had to raise home prices in order to pay higher wages.

According to the NAHB thousands of construction workers left the industry during the recession and many never returned. Likewise many foreign-born workers left the country and did not return.

Nation-wide the median price pf a three-bedroom, two bath family home has risen from &151,000 in April 2012 to $196,500 five years later – a 30 percent increase.