[blindwatchmaker]

Been witnessing this a lot in my city. Developers talking a big game about deregulation and additional supply being the only way to drive prices down, then building only "luxury" condos that are snapped up by speculators and prices everyone else out.

[lotsofpulp]

Shifting the supply curve is the only way to drive the price down if the demand curve cannot be shifted. If prices are not falling, that simply means the supply curve hasn't shifted far enough yet, hence more supply is needed.

Edit: At the heart of the issue is whether or not society believes if the place someone lives should be distributed via supply and demand. Historically, the overarching theme has been might makes right, either via brute force or some proxy such as money, with a few localized instances of seniority or luck dictating the right, such as with rent controls and housing lotteries.

[clairity]

another way to look at this is that the number of people who need housing is higher than (far to the right of) the current market clearing price point (where the supply and demand curves currently cross).

building more at the high end shifts the whole supply curve down, not just the portion at the high end (this is because markets are defined by the interchangeability of the goods therein--i.e., fungibility). however, the rate of building is far too low to even meet the rising demand, much less to supply housing to everyone, so prices continue to rise.

the demand curve, which moves independent of the supply curve, has shifted up with the flood of high-salary developers into the market, so the new equilibrium price is still high and far to the left of the number of people needing housing.

all of those people between the market clearing price point and total needing housing are homeless (not all are on the streets however).

to get to the point where we can house everyone, we can shift the demand curve up with higher wages (for the bottom 80%). the supply curve shifts up (prices are higher) with high rents (e.g., land prices), zoning/other regulations, and nimbyism. we need to improve all of these things to supply enough housing for everyone.