Isn't the problem that housing isn't more of a market?
In an actual market, margins are competed away and prices drop over time, there's elasticity in supply and demand, and people don't view their 15-year old cars or whatever as "investments", they trade them up for a newer model and pass down the older stuff to people who can't afford them as much.
In housing, we artificially constrain supply with zoning laws and building codes, and we stimulate demand with subsidized mortgages and rent control laws. It's pretty much the opposite of what you want to do if you want there to be more affordable housing.
This is how I view it as well. And there'd be a analogous method for getting medical costs lower in America by increasing competition (within reason, I understand why no one wants to go back to the days of snake oil remedies in an unregulated free for all).
Also odd is how these HN threads on housing often devolve into redesigning a socialist utopia from scratch in America, as if such a radical revolution has any chance, when Californians can't even organize enough to get Prop 13 repealed. Removing red tape and zoning to get to a more efficient market is much more achievable.
In an actual market, margins are competed away and prices drop over time, there's elasticity in supply and demand, and people don't view their 15-year old cars or whatever as "investments", they trade them up for a newer model and pass down the older stuff to people who can't afford them as much.
In housing, we artificially constrain supply with zoning laws and building codes, and we stimulate demand with subsidized mortgages and rent control laws. It's pretty much the opposite of what you want to do if you want there to be more affordable housing.