The housing crisis is a policy crisis

Median home price to median income ratio is now 7.5x nationally. In coastal cities it's 10-12x. This is not a market failure. This is a policy failure.

Zoning is the original sin. Single-family zoning covers 75% of residential land in most American cities. We've literally made it illegal to build the housing people need.

The legal landscape is shifting. Oregon banned single-family zoning statewide. Minneapolis did it citywide. California's ADU laws are producing results. But NIMBYism is deeply entrenched.

The racial dimension is inseparable from this. Single-family zoning was explicitly designed to segregate neighborhoods. Its modern effects perpetuate that legacy. Any housing policy that doesn't address this history is incomplete.

The YIMBY movement is the most interesting bipartisan coalition in policy right now. You have progressive urbanists and libertarian economists agreeing that the government should stop telling people what they can build on their own land.

Japan is the existence proof. They upzoned nationally, have no local veto, and housing costs in Tokyo are a fraction of comparable cities. The solution exists. We just lack the political will to implement it.