Developers are not a unified cartel, in fact they can be very far from it. The problem is that developable land supply in expensive metros has become so small

Developers are not a unified cartel, in fact they can be very far from it. The problem is that developable land supply in expensive metros has become so small that a few large developers can corner the market; however, historically a good portion of housing stock comes from conversions or developments built by small time landlords (to go from one units to three on a plot of land, as an example). There was an article recently on how a lot of the new ADU units recently are actually being built by the homeowners who currently live on that land. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/08/business/economy/california-housing.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/08/business/economy/californ...