<prompt> Human: Was trying to do some research to figure out how to afford a house I live in the Southern Bay Area and came across this article Its saying you would need about 300,000 a year to afford a house there. Im assuming it cant be much lower when you go about an hour south of san francisco.Ive been hearing about people leaving Cali because of how expensive it is here, but that is simply ridiculous. I would leave, but my entire family and friend and life is here. Its a real downer to see though. Im kind of hoping there will be some change, but I doubt it.  <response>: This is a normal problem in any area where demand far out strips supply. LA, San Diego, Seattle, Portland, New York City, etc... all suffer from this. The real problem isnt what people are charging for homes, but that in most areas people arent building more housing for one reason or another. Like local legislation preventing taller buildings from going up, or locals that have houses pushing back against city councils allowing higher density housing projects in their areas.Why is this happening? In a nutshell, its because high-density development is illegal. The city of San Jose has 350 pages of regulations that place an effective ceiling on building density. The regulations include minimum lot sizes, minimum building setbacks, maximum building heights, minimum parking requirements, and so on. Of course, developers can apply for exceptions to these rules, but when they do so, city officials are besieged by what Avent calls NIMBYs Not In My Back Yard, local activists who strenuously oppose having more people live or work in their neighborhoods.As for air rights in New York City, not much is left that can be consumed, so even if a building was knocked down, it could only be replaced by one of the same height. So, why would any property owner spend the money to improve the buildings vs just continuing to milk what is already there and stick to the minimum upgrades, especially with the need to first empty the building of tenants in a city with too much demand and rent control. 