Yes but the problem isn't just more living space, but more affordable living space.
Sure we have developers in Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, etc plopping down houses >$300-500k, but can the average person afford them? Yes I agree building codes in places like California make houses expensive, but the current market in the United States does not incentivize building affordable housing.
> I agree building codes in places like California make houses expensive, but the current market in the United States does not incentivize building affordable housing
> Uh, new housing has always been more expensive than older housing. That’s normal.
> When more supply goes on the market, existing stock goes lower in price - when there is enough supply.
Yes, that's part of why the housing stock today is nicer than the housing stock 200 years ago: over time the average newly built home was always better than existing houses.
Other than water and veggies, pretty much everything I buy has always been better than what I had 2,5,10 years before, but only housing has been becoming increasingly prohibitive.
It isn’t just housing actually - costs of education and healthcare have similarly skyrocketed out of control.
These are all areas with similar levels of ‘desirable is constrained’. Or perhaps worded better as ‘people want the top x percent, not just the same thing in bulk’.
Most of the other things you’re talking about, it’s easier to scale up production without hurting desirability.
For instance, if commute/neighborhoods/climate literally didn’t matter, everyone complaining about housing costs would just move to Rural Kansas or North Dakota and problem solved for dirt cheap.
Instead everyone is complaining about how nice new housing in city-of-choice-close-to-work is unaffordable.
Well of course it is - people are restricting building to keep it nice (by their standards), which is why folks want to move there, which is restricting supply - and with easier money (historically) that is causing increased bidding and increased costs.
Sure we have developers in Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, etc plopping down houses >$300-500k, but can the average person afford them? Yes I agree building codes in places like California make houses expensive, but the current market in the United States does not incentivize building affordable housing.