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I see this notion a lot, that density decreases home values. Yet home prices are at their highest in our densest cities. I just don't buy it.

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Assuming you're right and increasing density somehow does not decrease home value/price in the densest cities, then how can up zoning/increasing density help alleviate the housing crisis?

It's like saying 'We want to change the zoning to make housing more affordable but don't worry it won't make housing more affordable'.

Because relaxed zoning increases the price of land and decreases the price of interior space. In the most expensive cities, it's the value of land that's going up. The houses themselves are often the same structures that housed the working class in the 50s.

Walkable neighborhoods tend to be expensive and those where jobs are.

If you just add apartment house to existing residential street, you achieve neither. Especially when zoning does not allows small shops to appear.

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