Housing costs are skyrocketing everywhere. I hear people talking about a "housing shortage," but there is so much new construction near me I find it hard to believe. In my community, the amount of development has so far outstripped infrastructure that the people on city water have very low pressure because too many homes have been put into the system. There have been thousands of new housing units built, and not one of the old roads has been enlarged to accommodate new traffic.  

And the new development is stupidly expensive. Large, boxy homes on postage-stamp lots sell for over half a million dollars. This isn't the middle of a large city. Average apartment rents run about $1700/month. 

It's absolutely insane.  

A real solution to this problem might be something like forbidding huge investment companies from buying up large amounts of properties and then setting prices. Instead, we have people promoting things like pod living, or trying to make it socially acceptable to live in your parents' basement.

Is this push to make people live on top of each other just greed? Or is some other ideology at work here? Part of me acknowledges that the suburban trap for ever-bigger houses is silly and wasteful. However, I've spent my share of time living in low-income, densely occupied urban areas. I've had neighbors that stab each other and set things on fire. The cute little pods full of urban professionals only show one part of the densely-living picture. Imagine just one person in a house like that with a substance abuse problem, and the cute little dream-pod turns into a waking nightmare. 

People need choices. 

America was never envisioned as the land run by huge multinational firms. It was supposed to be the land of opportunity, where if you worked hard and played by the rules, you could keep the fruits of your labor. However, with the consolidation of the housing market into the hands of investment firms and the consolidation of farmland into the hands of people like Bill Gates, choices regarding where we live are exactly what we're losing.