A much, much bigger problem in the US is that houses have trended larger, fancier, with more amenities, etc. New houses have more than doubled in size since the

A much, much bigger problem in the US is that houses have trended larger, fancier, with more amenities, etc. New houses have more than doubled in size since the 1950s, while holding fewer occupants and having more amenities. They are inevitably much more expensive. Genuinely affordable housing is in very short supply and this fact has gotten steadily worse for decades. If we built more basic, decent housing that was a reasonable size, this would solve a lot of problems for a great many Americans. But we have made it incredibly hard, if not impossible, to do this. Zoning laws, federal regulations, tax incentives and financing mechanisms have helped create a situation where those that can afford to buy a house at all are crazy to not get the largest house they can afford and, at the same time, homelessness is on the rise. It is madness.