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You misunderstand cause and effect. They have become financial instruments because there is insufficient supply for the demand.

Unfortunately others with that level of economic ignorance tend to advocate for policies that fail to fix this and either 1) pick a few lucky winners and fuck everyone else over like rent control or 2) make things even more expensive by subsidizing house purchases or creating risk like the 2008 mortgages.

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Unfortunately, in areas where density drives value increasing supply also appears to increase demand.

Move someplace affordable isn't seen as a solution in part because it's not an intervention, it's just something people can do.

Jevons Paradox. Build 2x the thing, whether it's roads or houses, demand only gets worse.

Now I bet that expanding a road not by extra lane, but by ten of them, would exhaust all the "latent demand" and then some. Similarly, if the supply of housing were to increase tenfold, perhaps we'd run out of speculators?

Then again, leverage means they can probably absorb infinite supply - just keep loaning and buying to keep the pyramid scheme going.

Austin built enough to drop rent actually

We need regulators and legislators who aren't bought and paid for.

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