Clearly there is a middle ground. Japan has this problem too, with real estate. So they reformed their zoning and permitting laws to make building easier, and i

Clearly there is a middle ground. Japan has this problem too, with real estate. So they reformed their zoning and permitting laws to make building easier, and it worked. Housing prices came down, and the negative effects were minimal. Once upon a time, during the Lochner era, it was almost impossible to regulate in the US. While that environment had advantages, it clearly had many downsides. Since then, we have overcorrected, and made it too easy to regulate. We need to pull things back a little.