Comment by cyberax

> Just build more of the thing that people want!

And how do you build more land for single-family houses? Around 80% of people in the US would prefer to live in a SFH.

But even putting that quip aside, you physically can't keep up with the demand. Large cities physically can't grow fast enough to keep up with the demand.

A typical apartment unit now requires about 2 work-years of labor to build. So if you're growing your city by 5% a year, then 10% of the city will be apartment construction workers! And then you'll need to keep upgrading the infrastructure, and this is usually exorbitantly expensive.

To give some perspective: one mile of Manhattan subway now costs as much as 1500 miles of modern 6-lane freeway.