These could be factors but I do think this is probably accurate overall. Walkable areas are expensive primarily because they're in such short supply. It doesn't take a majority to make it expensive, just a slice of the population larger than the people who can actually fit in such places. And since we've made dense urban development illegal in like 99% of the country, naturally any amount of people wanting to live in such places is too much.

Ultimately I think this is a problem created by large, majoritarian government. The suburban majority decides urban design and the rest have little to no power to object.