The (moderate) elasticity of zoned markets: What I see in Portland and elsewhere is lots of high rise condos and apartments being built. They’re not making more land, but they’re making more property — and these are mostly at the high end of the market.

As Avent says “the great Housing Bubble of the Aughts probably acted to massively increase the nation’s stock of housing..” Yes. hundreds of thousands of units were built. Developers are selling houses cheap to get rid of inventory. In the long run this is probably to the good, whether those houses/apartments are bought or rented.

The problem is still towards the bottom. The US hasn’t invested in low income housing for decades, and we still have homeless families and people paying over half of their income on housing. In fact the boom has driven prices up, making it harder for low end workers, and incidentally for struggling artists, to keep up.