>>"Does anyone have any insight into whether artificial housing restrictions could benefit a municipality in the long term?" I think you can't answer that ques

>>"Does anyone have any insight into whether artificial housing restrictions could benefit a municipality in the long term?" I think you can't answer that question without defining what is the intended outcome: what it's a 'benefit'?. If you define the optimal result, in a tautological way, as "whatever the market decide", then, by definition, any restriction is going to be bad. Otherwise, you need to decide what do you want to accomplish (by 'you' I mean the residents of the area) and choose a policy that makes sense.