Note: Several tables were revised on April 11, 2025, to correct some column headers. In this report, the authors present analyses of production cost differences among privately funded, market-rate apartments and publicly subsidized affordable apartments in California, Colorado, and Texas using a sample of cost data on more than 140 completed projects. The report highlights large cross-state differences in production costs—for example, the average market-rate apartment in California is roughly two and a half times the cost of a similar apartment constructed in Texas on a square-foot basis—and regional differences within California, where costs in the San Francisco Bay area are roughly 50 percent higher than costs in San Diego. The report also focuses on the specific contributions of different cost categories to these overall differences and seeks to identify related policy reforms—such as requiring faster approval times, removing complex design requirements that do not relate to safety or habitability, and reducing mandatory fees assessed on new multifamily housing—that can lower production costs and increase housing affordability in California.