There are parts of the US where home ownership is bottlenecked by land prices, where this is absolutely the case.
And there are parts where it's bottlenecked by construction costs, where this is not the case.
"Are a bad thing" is also complex. I would agree they WERE a bad thing when introduced.
Today, there is a complex problem of how you unwind this phenomenon. If you invested your life savings plus $800k of debt into a $1M home, and it's worth $500k, you have a serious problem. Simply eliminating access to debt would cause all sorts of economic disruption for consumers, almost certainly outweighing the benefits in lower housing costs.
And the other piece of the puzzle are zoning and codes. 100 years ago, if you had a plot of land, you could cut the wood and build a log cabin. Today, construction is $$$$$$$ because of inspections, licenses, insurance, and a crew of bonded / licensed workers. A log cabin would be illegal and result in fines.
There are parts of the US where home ownership is bottlenecked by land prices, where this is absolutely the case.
And there are parts where it's bottlenecked by construction costs, where this is not the case.
"Are a bad thing" is also complex. I would agree they WERE a bad thing when introduced.
Today, there is a complex problem of how you unwind this phenomenon. If you invested your life savings plus $800k of debt into a $1M home, and it's worth $500k, you have a serious problem. Simply eliminating access to debt would cause all sorts of economic disruption for consumers, almost certainly outweighing the benefits in lower housing costs.
And the other piece of the puzzle are zoning and codes. 100 years ago, if you had a plot of land, you could cut the wood and build a log cabin. Today, construction is $$$$$$$ because of inspections, licenses, insurance, and a crew of bonded / licensed workers. A log cabin would be illegal and result in fines.