I'm not convinced that house prices area actually a big deal, except as an indicator that more housing should be permitted (by zoning laws). There are two argu

I'm not convinced that house prices area actually a big deal, except as an indicator that more housing should be permitted (by zoning laws). There are two arguments that are typically given. Firstly, you want to encourage people of different incomes to live together. I don't believe that this is a worthy goal. It's not clear that the benefit to people on low incomes outweighs the loss to their high income neighbors. And the richest 1% always find ways to isolate themselves anyway. The second argument is that welfare should taken into account the cost of living. I also believe this within reason, but the welfare system already does this in many ways. In fact, London's "one bedroom rule" is a clunky way to do precisely this: it lets people live where they like, but prevents people from purchasing an excessive "quantity" of housing.