mixture of housing supply shortage, empty homes, fucked investments, a bit of zoning laws, and nimbyism, and airbnb

housing supply shortage

younger generations want to live in cities because thats where both employment and “fun” is reletively speaking. the demand is very high for limited space.

empty homes

in some areas, there are homes that are completely empty, some due to negligence, inheritance and some just to artificially decrease supply. to put an example, San Jose, CA legitimately has more empty homes than it does homeless.

fucked investments/nimbyism

some people see housing as an investment instead of putting it into stocks. the investments keeps proces high because its seen as profit rather than a basic necessity to live. people who own houses will use all their power to prevent more houses to be built because more home lowers procing because of more supply.

zoning laws

some places, they restrict building to strictly residential or strictly commercial building. as WFH becomes more mainstream more land needs to be made as residential land. or remove the zoning alltogether

airbnb

airbnb gets you more money in popular areas. it takes away a potenial home for a local worker in favor for maximum investments, which is bad for the city, because it circumvents hotel taxes, and takes away potential income tax from someone who would have lived and worked in the area.