> Until we liberalize zoning, legalize building, and reject the idea that houses have to be appreciating assets, the issue will continue.
Even if all those things are done the issue will still continue.
There is a limited amount of land at desirable locations with desirable properties.
You can increase density-- sure-- but after densifying more than some threshold of land it won't help because the extremely high density housing is itself extremely unattractive to many people, so building more density only helps to the extent that there are people who want that with unmet housing needs.
The fundamental natural of housing is the root cause, restrictive policy is an exacerbating factor.
To use an extreme example, you can easily go find big tracts of land in Montana for under $1000 an acre where no one would prevent you from building a gosh darn arcology if you wanted to. Yet the existence of cheap land someplace else doesn't magically make the issue of housing costs solved. People don't want to live in that someplace else, they want to live in particular places and there always is and always will be a finite amount of land in those particular places.
Even if all those things are done the issue will still continue.
There is a limited amount of land at desirable locations with desirable properties.
You can increase density-- sure-- but after densifying more than some threshold of land it won't help because the extremely high density housing is itself extremely unattractive to many people, so building more density only helps to the extent that there are people who want that with unmet housing needs.
The fundamental natural of housing is the root cause, restrictive policy is an exacerbating factor.
To use an extreme example, you can easily go find big tracts of land in Montana for under $1000 an acre where no one would prevent you from building a gosh darn arcology if you wanted to. Yet the existence of cheap land someplace else doesn't magically make the issue of housing costs solved. People don't want to live in that someplace else, they want to live in particular places and there always is and always will be a finite amount of land in those particular places.