I think that people ignore the fact that the population of the United States has dramatically increased over time. We now have 331 million people whereas there were only 210 million in 1970. So of course housing is going to be more expensive. The issue gets even more dramatic prior to 1900.
The USA has half of a continent to house all these hundreds of millions. The problem is with overcrowding in larger cities, not the lack of space (even if the location is suboptimal).
NOne of us should feel compelled to crowd into large cities anymore. NOT in the 21st century, and CERTAINLY not after we've clearly demonstrated as a workforce that we can very easily get our jobs done remotely. Sure, that's not for all workers, or even most, but a huge proportion of us could very easily move to small towns all across america to relieve the crowding pressure in cities or the most trendy suburbs.
IF and ONLY IF: employers join us in the 21st century, and embrace remote work where they can.
(and the real danger, as I learned in the 1990's, is not even being remote - it's being "not at the home office" of a distributed organization - it is a career killer, and when that "business cycle" inevitably hits, your remote-office workers are always the first to get cut. This shit has to stop if we're going to get out of this "crowded into cities" nightmare).
