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The price finds whatever level it needs to maintain a population that fits within the housing supply. Obviously population can’t grow that much against a fixed housing supply; once the vacants and spare bedrooms are filled up, people just get priced out. This is Malthusian NIMBY policy working exactly as intended.

Population geography also shifts from rural to urban and from declining to rising cities even as the total population size holds constant or shrinks. The fact that there is space for you on a farm or in a coal-mining town is cold comfort to someone with a STEM degree and a job offer at a corporate headquarters.