You have the causality mixed up. Housing isn't inherently expensive in cities. Building housing costs about the same everywhere, but land is expensive because o

You have the causality mixed up. Housing isn't inherently expensive in cities. Building housing costs about the same everywhere, but land is expensive because of artificial scarcity. It's amazing how much America has and yet there are only a small handful of places where you can walk to a grocery store, and the privilege will cost you $2,500 per month. Every single state could easily support walkable cities (Europe manages), but they don't because of a pathological pattern of development pioneered after WWII. I don't know how to help people who live in sparse suburbs. Not everyone needs to live in Manhattan, but exurban sprawl is alienating (and unsustainable to boot). It just doesn't build community.