I live in a median market, where the price per square foot is about $150 for a detached house in an urban area with tight supply.
The difference why places like California and NYC are so out of control has less to do with supply than demand. As fiscal policy and philosophy demand consolidation and concentration, more and more people in the same circumstances go to the same place.
Since the mid 70s, smart jobs go to the top 10 cities, dumb jobs go the the South or offshore, and everything else is mined for value.
It doesn’t have to be that way. When IBM was at its prime, their big engineering centers were in places like Upstate NY, Minneapolis, Tampa, RTP, Toronto, etc. GE did similar things.
Modern tech companies would rather pay 3-7x more for folks in the Bay Area or NYC. That’s all about control and where the money is.