I appreciate your frustration, but there is more to this argument than "houses are expensive, let's blame rich people". I grew up middle class with educator parents, went to public school, and got a job as an engineer. I rented for years and am now a landlord, so I know both sides of the coin. My tenants live in nice houses in great neighborhoods that they would never be able to live in as homeowners because of bad credit and lack of funds. They are happy to rent there because their kids go to much better schools than in a different neighborhood where they might be able to buy a house. All of that was BEFORE the recent run-up in prices caused by consumer behavior during Covid. And that house I grew up in? Still worth less than $300k. Just no one wants to live in small towns where life is more affordable, so they prefer to rent in bigger ones. Investors also create housing developments, which is what increases the supply. Lots of people left expensive cities during the pandemic to buy houses across the US. Investors are the ones building those houses. If investors built more houses, prices would come down. Places that punish investors have fewer houses and higher housing prices (think San Francisco and New York).