Ah yes, real estate prices are famously low in the most upzoned parts of the country (Manhattan).
If you can build a 100 floor skyscraper on a piece of land, that land is insanely valuable!
If you can build a 100 floor skyscraper on a piece of land, that land is insanely valuable!
If you could build 100 floor skyscrapers in the entire metropolitan area, this advantage goes away.
Guess what it does to prices?
No. I'm reading it exactly right. Density _causes_ higher prices. It makes it easier to create jobs near dense locations, which in turn makes it more attractive for people to move in. This in turn increases housing costs.
There should be plenty of different levels of density for people to choose to live in as everyone has different preferences. What's not sustainable in any way is exclusive single family zoning. If, as so many backers of exclusionary zoning claim, people only want to live in SFH, why would we need a law to force that to be the only built form? Surely every single unit built of any other type would fail to find a resident.
This had the effect of driving all the developers into fewer land parcels, hiking up prices. New York has not substantially deviated from this zoning model since then.
it's not a good look. hope my comment doesn't flag me in unforeseen ways 20 years from now.
To be clear, I'm saying effectively yep need bedrock otherwise it makes zero actual sense. (I do take you point, and lesson learned on my part)