> All you need to do is look at total housing units vs total families to see that… … homebuilding outpaces growth of "family units"! In the UK you can track O

> All you need to do is look at total housing units vs total families to see that… … homebuilding outpaces growth of "family units"! In the UK you can track ONS census data back in decades and +1m families, +1.1m households. In the US 2011-21, it's +5m families, +10m homes. Bigger surpluses wouldn't hurt —and I would happily believe there are markets where this isn't true— but this idea of market drought causing inflated prices is too simplistic. What has changed is that banks have leant far more aggressively in the past 30 years. If they hadn't, homes in high demand areas would be demanded by relatively fewer people, prices wouldn't be so buoyant. By "viable" I meant the price point a market bear. There's your SAD. Another change is the proportion of owner-occupied: absolute number in the UK has stayed relatively static, while the number of private landlords has exploded. Two thirds of those privately let properties are on mortgages that again, are a financial product that has been far more aggressively stretched in the past 30 years. High ratio mortgages have lifted this. They allow us to afford more, so the market can charge more at the same level of demand. That means we all have bigger mortgages, the banks make far more in repayments. It's a long game and banks have won. We even bailed them out when it bit them in the arse. What's worse is they lie about the reasons in order to build more, lend more with this idea that it will magically become more affordable. No amount of building can ever be allowed to depress these prices because our institutions depend on a constant rise. I don't have a solution. Creative sale restrictions for newbuilds (eg everlasting price capping, return to state, etc) might be the only way to have a lasting affordable housing stock but as things are, we're only a major financial crash away from the banks being able to take 20% of all mortgaged properties when people can't keep up with repayments, and one more after that to take another 20%. That's where we're heading.