It can be when you can artificially induce a housing shortage. E.g. I have a friend whose area has become extremely popular for city people and prices have gon

It can be when you can artificially induce a housing shortage. E.g. I have a friend whose area has become extremely popular for city people and prices have gone up a ton over the past couple years. Their father owns a bunch of property in the area and sits on a bunch of local board, and specifically lobbies to block housing development to protect their "future" that's locked up in these properties. (Mostly SFH in suburbs.) It's an explicit goal for some people. As long as demand is high, b/c of mostly immutable factors, schools/weather/job opportunities etc and people have the money to spend then prices will go up if you keep housing supply low.