> They why dont we build as much housing as possible?
Because it's not possible. Large cities can't sustainably grow at more than single digit percentage per year speed.
And at that speed, the density/price death spiral easily consumes all the housing.
Seattle was mentioned here, and it grew its number of housing units by 25% over 12 years. Oftentimes leading the country in the number of active cranes.
Can you guess what happened with housing costs? I give you three guesses.
> Since if prices never fall or never even rise slower we clearly can make infinite wealth?
No. You get the fall of democracy, demographic collapse, and in general other nasty consequences when the bill comes due.
Because it's essentially a zero-sum game now. The population growth has mostly ended, so every new dense housing unit in NYC means a new abandoned house in rural Ohio.
Want a stat that will blow your mind? The US has 1.1 housing units per family. We literally have more houses than families in the country. Yet somehow it's a "housing crisis".
