Sidebar - I wish others wouldn't downvote people I'm just trying to have a normal conversation with. Makes everything feel needlessly strained and rude. It always feels like people are crowding around trying to make simple disagreements into fights, doesn't it?
Other than getting private equity out of housing (easy answers first, shadow banks shouldn't own houses) it seems like we should be able to come up with a way to create a lot more highly basic housing at high speed and minimal cost, even if the housing was a bit brutalist it'd have a cooling effect on the cost of mid-range homes.
Of course, at some point we butt up against the fact that when your economic system treats real estate as an investment, you can't also undermine that subtle class system without damaging your economy. At some point the way we do things just depends on a maximum sustainable amount of suffering to keep the markets ticking along.