Jobs are concentrating in metro areas and so that’s where housing is concentrating. Costs going up in a growing metro economy creates a cycle where more lucrati

Jobs are concentrating in metro areas and so that’s where housing is concentrating. Costs going up in a growing metro economy creates a cycle where more lucrative jobs are attracted and thus more expensive housings are built. At some point, it becomes far more profitable to build a housing development or luxury apartments than regular affordable apartments. Some places have zoning that limits new construction but even if they didn’t, all you’d get is housing built to chase the highest profit, single family homes, luxury apartments, and 55+ apartments, instead of affordable apartments. The low income people I know all commute an hour or more into the metro areas because of their car allowing it. This is, big picture, the death throes of a dying society, where the wealth has been stolen from future generations so much that there is no stronger incentive to produce and build for the laborers required to sustain a general economy, but rather it is most profitable to simply bleed off some wealth from the holders of it instead with ostentatiousness and luxury. Everyone is just trying to steal a piece from each other for themselves like in crypto instead of creating value.