Ramit Sethi argues housing costs spike because of zoning laws and NIMBY opposition from existing homeowners, not institutional investors like BlackRock. Local regulations make duplexes, row houses, and apartments illegal in most cities, creating artificial scarcity that drives prices up.
Guess what happens when you can't build more houses in virtually every city in America? You limit supply, which, as we know from Econ 1, less supply plus higher demand equals higher prices. And that is exactly why housing is so expensive. It's not about BlackRock. It's not about Blackstone. It's not about greedy landlords. It is about a mundane reality that most people don't even know about. It is about your parents and your neighbors wealthy homeowners who systematically do not allow any more housing to be built around them. I'm talking about duplexes, row houses, triplexes, skyscrapers, all kinds of housing. They simply say it's illegal. And this is true in almost every city in America.
