> The US has a housing shortage [1] (~3M-8M units)

It doesn't. It really, really doesn't. The per-capita housing units are close to the historical highs. And per-household stats are _even_ _better_: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=15tRv

What the US has is the density-despair spiral going. It's creating denser and denser pits of despair in the urban centers via economic forces.

After all, what use is housing in Iowa if you _have_ to live in New York? Because there are no jobs for you in Iowa. And housing in New York will NEVER be cheap.

Per capita housing numbers in a country with as much empty land as the US are useless and deceptive.