> Where I live they have not been able to build new housing fast enough to keep up with rising population over the last thirty years. Yes, because rules in the

> Where I live they have not been able to build new housing fast enough to keep up with rising population over the last thirty years. Yes, because rules in the US handicap new housing growth. > The prices increase directly proportional to the current velocity of new housing availability at any given moment. Yes, because they have the same cause: demand increasing. Imagine that every car maker was heavily constrained in how many cars they could make. As demands for cars rise, they find every angle to try and produce more cars, but the price keeps going up. Did the new supply cause the price to rise? No, they just have the same cause. There have been myriad studies on this, almost every economist finds that new housing in booming areas makes housing prices less bad than they would be otherwise. > You can’t make more land but you can always build more houses irrespective of demand. This isn't true. Zoning severely handicaps more housing in the places people want to live. Well, except for Houston (sorta), and indeed, rent there seems substantially lower than other major cities in Texas like Dallas and Austin.