I my similarly affected local area it's many factors that are prevented new housing that is needed / being taken out by investors around the globe buying chunks

I my similarly affected local area it's many factors that are prevented new housing that is needed / being taken out by investors around the globe buying chunks of the market for short term rentals and others who are slated to move here it seems. All the builders are busy. Getting construction help around here is a crazy process these days (referring to the year BCP / before covid pandemonium) - builders that have the ability to build are generally focused on building more expensive houses to get more money (not average homes that were built long ago). the ones that have the money (from whatever sources) to build the minimum code skinny homes that do well for maximizing cost for arbnbs seem to be gobbling up any and all possible property that fits in the zoning places that these can squeeze into - limiting the market for others who want to build their own (who already live here) The part of town I currently live in, the neighbor groups are NIMBY NIMBY - a recent meeting I sat in where a local developer was exploring putting in a dozen townhomes / condos into a larger development with single family homes - everyone there just wanting to complain about the effects of other development in the area. The price of land is going up, and the cost to develop the land. Building affordable is not as easy as it was some time ago. Some of council is telling citizens to downzone property en mass in order to prevent more affordable options from popping up in their neighborhoods. I heard our last council meeting they attempted a county-wide zone change. It's become clear to me that some of these council folks really are 'our neighborhood character, the children!' type people.. however it seems that many of them are spouting similar types of scare mongering things while really just propping up the value of all the Marriot properties in the city (by trying to limit the airbnb and similar). It's been an interesting show to watch. I don't think supply and demand is going to turn all these, now mostly empty, hotel properties back into affordable housing for the locals. They will just sit there and maybe be traded as distressed properties and be rebranded as some other brand new basic like the self storage places. At least that's how I see it around here in a nutshell - there are many other interesting dynamics going on. Quite the complex play to watch actually, with characters from all over vying to push norms wherever they can get away with it - while the average families try to figure out where they can afford to live. The things the surrounding counties are doing to prevent the people from here moving there is also another interesting set of things to watch with wonder.