Ironically it's the government stepping in with regulation and zoning that is preventing people from building more housing (that low and middle income people ca

Ironically it's the government stepping in with regulation and zoning that is preventing people from building more housing (that low and middle income people can feasibly afford). The cost of building a new home on an empty piece of land can be astronomical and so builders would rather get the massive sums of initial capital from outside investors, build a luxury building for high income earners and cash out instead of using their own funds to build more modest homes for modest returns. The cost of bringing in utilities/licensing to a luxury condo with dozens of units isn't O(N) to the cost of a single family homes utility/licensing so the economic incentive is to build high end buildings that don't do much in the way of bringing down prices.