The most effective way to lower housing prices is to increase supply. Instead of artificially freezing rents, which discourages investment, policymakers should remove regulations that make building new units difficult. More construction creates more competition, which naturally drives down prices for everyone.

Adam Carolla argues that the time and expense of navigating regulations, like those from California's Coastal Commission, are so prohibitive that many people simply give up on building projects altogether, even on their own property. The bureaucratic friction outweighs the desire to build.

While advocating for relaxed zoning, Mayor Lurie acknowledges it is not a silver bullet for housing affordability. He states that high interest rates, labor, and material costs are the primary blockers to new construction, meaning policy changes won't trigger immediate development or rent drops.

Overly complex building regulations result in regulatory capture. Only large, well-connected developers can navigate the system, creating a moat that stifles competition from smaller innovators and keeps prices artificially high for consumers.

Housing scarcity is a bottom-up cycle where homeowners' financial incentive is to protect their property value (NIMBYism). They then vote for politicians who enact restrictive building policies, turning personal financial interests into systemic regulatory bottlenecks.

Beyond zoning laws, the housing crisis is deeply structural. The construction sector has seen little technological innovation or productivity growth for decades. This is compounded by a shortage of buildable land near job centers and a lasting skilled labor deficit created when workers left the industry after the 2008 crash.

Contrary to most industries that see technological gains, housing construction has become less efficient. This stagnation is a key, often overlooked driver of housing affordability issues, as the fundamental cost to build has not decreased with technology.

Legally mandated parking spaces for every new building add tens of thousands of dollars to construction costs and raise rents. These laws also make it impossible to reuse older, historic buildings that can't accommodate parking, fundamentally forcing modern architecture to be designed around cars.

While local policies like zoning are often blamed for housing crises, the problem's prevalence across vastly different economies and regulatory environments suggests it's a global phenomenon. This points to systemic drivers beyond local supply constraints, such as global capital flows into real estate.