The amount of money consumers have to spend on housing is not sufficient to buy a house in today's market.

I was going to post something on another thread, but didn't. As I have the information at hand, and it picks up on your point, I'll post it here.

As I walk around my neighborhood, I see houses built in the 70s and 80s, that I deem "normal size". But, everything built since the mid 90s is a garish mcmansion. Seems that house builders have made the same decision as automakers, to move "up market", caring not one whit if some are priced out of the market, as they throw up a garish mcmansion on every lot they acquire.

In Q2 of this year, Pulte, builder of most of the garish mcmansions in my area, reported a 15.5% net profit. For 2024, the S&P 500 reported a 12.1% net profit, which, itself, was above the five year average.

If someone wanted to foster a lot of goodwill among working people, he would lean on developers like Pulte, to build houses to sell at some percentage below market average, and settle for half of their usual net margin on them...or, consequences.

The other thing that comes to mind: deportation of hundreds of thousands, or millions, of immigrants, would free up a lot of "affordable" housing.

Steve