Because the financialization of homes, plus the interests and insecurities of tens of millions of homeowners, create hellishly powerful incentives to restrict the supply of homes.

Everything else is just piddly details on exactly where & how & how much water is inevitably flowing downhill.

I like the idea, but even with better funding availability, "missing middle" projects will struggle to get built. Accessibility requirements for elevators mean that the most profitable projects will be either single-family homes or 5-3 over 1 boxes. This isn't even to mention the local zoning and regulatory hurdles. Why go through the regulatory legwork for less than ten units if you could build a hundred?

I'm not very well informed, but couldn't we figure out how to improve loan availability for condos in 5-3 over 1's? I think that would make a much bigger impact.

Because we don’t build enough to meet demand?