Naively, you would expect this to be fixed via basic economics: high demand and low supply lead to high prices, which should lead to MORE supply, which should lower prices. And yet this doesn't seem to be the case. Very little building seems to be happening relative to the explosion in demand, and when it does happen it's mostly houses for rich folks, not ordinary ones. The system isn't self-healing anymore. It's jammed up.<p>Obviously this most recent spike is probably connected to exodus from the major cities due to covid, but the trend has been happening for years, maybe a full decade now. The best I can tell, this is yet another example of our economy becoming increasingly imaginary. Again, naively you would expect people to buy houses to LIVE IN, and other people to BUILD those homes so they could be sold to the first group of people. But in the recent past it seems the housing market has joined an ever-growing list of things like crypto, Game Stop stock, and who knows what else; a perverse wonderland where everything is detached from reality and rampant, delusional speculation rules the day.<p>The difference is, no one needs crypto, or Game Stop shares, so if crazy people want to monopolize them, fine. People DO need places to live. Many can't afford one even under good conditions. And now yet another thing ordinary people need has been stolen from them by the rich, fenced and moated off, never to be seen again. Meanwhile food prices are going up and up and up, while portions get smaller and smaller. Inflation looks ready to explode. And soon, Covid will (hopefully) be over. Which means the "pause" that was put on everything will go away. No more government assistance to ease things. No more "coming together" to fight the common enemy. You may thing there's strife online and off now, but when we "go back to normal," in a few months, or a year, a whole ton of salt is going to be ground into the waiting wound, and this housing shortage will be at the top of a long, long list of grievances. 2020 was nothing compared to what's coming.