> 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.

Very much disagree. Plenty of people would be fine living in multi-family housing. Everything from apartments to 2-family houses.

74% of people live in SFH right now in the US. How many of those have actually never experienced living in multi-family homes? Probably most of them. How can you prefer something you've never even tried?

Also, keep in mind that in many places SFH is literally the only choice right now.

Given real estate prices in places like Boston and NYC I think multi-family housing is doing just fine