I don’t think it’s that simple at all.

I see plenty of vacancies around me.

I think we need to build higher density housing and I also think there is some amount of market manipulation happening.

In SF, the apartment vacancy rate was approaching an absurdly low 3% earlier this year (https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/san-francisco-rent-surg...). Usual estimates put apartment vacancies at at least 5% just to accomodate people moving in and out of buildings in the first place.