Your comment is much more insightful than 99% of the responses, which mostly seem just angry. But I have to think that the primary reason for the real estate p

Your comment is much more insightful than 99% of the responses, which mostly seem just angry. But I have to think that the primary reason for the real estate problem (which, I agree, is quite serious and the cause of many other issues) is that housing became financialized, and the primary way for the middle class to save money. It doesn't have to be that way; mobile homes, for example, do not work like this, they work more like cars (financially). The dearth of people working from the office in NYC or SF lately does not seem to have made any meaningful dent in the rent, primarily because the drivers of it were financial.