I think the missing dimension here is time. Building houses overnight won't magically make Oakland into NYC. It would take time, if it did happen, and until the

I think the missing dimension here is time. Building houses overnight won't magically make Oakland into NYC. It would take time, if it did happen, and until then housing would be cheaper. Additionally. I think that it would be interesting to consider the distribution of housing costs. There are likely more affordable housing units in NYC than in Oakland (citation very much needed, I'm not sure this is true) , even if there are less relatively. So if your goal is to increase the number of people that can afforably live somewhere (as opposed to decreasing the average housing cost) building may accomplish it, even if it drives up median housing costs. Lastly, this suggests that perhaps building needs to be accompanied with other policies if the goal is to decrease housing costs (whether rent control, demand reduction, or something else). Unfortunately, I doubt limiting job creation to reduce demand would be popular :)