Also we can probably simplify this bucket even more and just talk about the elephant in the room which is rent/mortgage.

It’s 30 to 50% of most peoples paycheck, it’s really the piece that matters and the one that is most complicated to solve.

It's not very complicated; it's just that the solutions are deeply unpopular. Making housing affordable by definition means driving down prices. But existing homeowners don't like to see their home prices go down! And about 2/3 of the US public lives in a house owned by a resident.

I'm semi-convinced that the reason why we see so many bad ideas in housing is because the good ideas negatively affect too much of the voting public. Or, they perceive the ideas as negatively affecting them.

The government heavily interferes in the housing industry. Hence, the higher costs. It's the same for everything the government interferes with - such as education and health care.

For examples:

1. there are 57,000 unoccupied apartments in NYC because city regulations on rents make them unprofitable to rent out.

2. the glacial pace of issuing building permits for burned out homes in LA.

3. the sudden influx of many millions of immigrants pushes up the demand for housing, resulting in higher prices

a friend showed me their budget recently, and about 45 hours of their wages go to rent each month (for a single room in a house with roommates). That seems very high to me, and their rent is considered "low" in their area (a small suburb)