[sologoub]

Many very desirable localities are experiencing this in US, though people generally still can find lower costs with exceptionally longer commutes.

In Southern California the shortage in these desirable are is mostly driving by locals. In Santa Monica, I have observed a lot of development get killed by local activist groups who are mostly made up of not wealthy people on rent control. They have no upside that I can think of in the skyrocketing prices or rents. Though they are protected from the consequences by rent control. Yet they still very consistently vote against more housing, even if it's 20% mandatory affordable below market units...

The reasoning seems to be "if only all these gentrifiers stopped moving here and those who are here moved out!", but that's not gonna happen so long as jobs are blocked by impassible traffic.

So in Santa Monica, it's not the rich that are creating the problem. They are simply optimizing their lifestyle to have more free time by using resources at their disposal. If slightly more dense housing was built (Santa Monica averages about 1.5 floors from my observation), it could easily double the supply with only a modest gain in height. Utilities would have to be expanded, but that can be funded with the developments.