Housing costs have exploded across the United States and everyone seems to have a scapegoat in mind. Some blame BlackRock. Others blame immigrants. Still others blame boomers who “refuse to downsize.” But none of these explanations get us close to the real answer. If you want to know what caused the housing affordability crisis, you have to look at the one actor powerful enough to restrict supply everywhere at once: the government.

In this episode of the Libertarian Christian Podcast, David Rand takes us through the deeper structural causes of the crisis and explains why the United States went from a property‑rights‑based land system to a managerial, centrally planned regime that chokes off new housing. The result is predictable: scarcity, skyrocketing prices, and a generation locked out of homeownership.

Rand is the president and CEO of the Land Liberty Movement, a new national nonprofit working to rebuild the American Dream by restoring property rights, and the freedom to build. He also produces content for Build the Dream, a Substack that explores housing policy. You can also find him on X @David_Rand_

Here are a few insights from his interview.

What Caused the Housing Affordability Crisis?

1. The crisis is real and measurable

Half of Americans now spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing, a level HUD defines as “rent burden.” That number was just 23 percent in the 1960s. When people at the bottom of the income ladder have only a few hundred dollars left after rent, the system is failing.

2. BlackRock and institutional investors aren’t the cause

Institutional buyers account for roughly 1–3 percent of home purchases. Even in regions where they buy entire neighborhoods, they cannot explain a nationwide affordability collapse. These stories distract from the real structural barriers that keep new housing from being built.

3. Immigrants didn’t break the housing market

Immigration increases demand, but demand only becomes a crisis when supply is artificially capped. The Trump administration’s claim that immigrants caused the shortage ignores the far larger “bureaucrat tax” local governments impose on every unit built. If supply could expand freely, population growth wouldn’t create scarcity.

4. Developers didn’t suddenly become greedier

Developers in 1901 were just as profit‑motivated as developers today. Yet housing was far more affordable. Greed didn’t change. The rules did. The shift from a property‑rights system to a managerial, centrally planned land regime is a far more powerful explanation of what caused the housing affordability crisis.

5. Zoning laws lock most land out of the market

When 70 percent of a city is zoned single‑family‑only, 70 percent of the land is legally forbidden from absorbing demand. That alone creates scarcity. Even when multifamily zoning exists, layers of additional restrictions make building nearly impossible.

6. Minimum lot sizes kill starter homes

Before the 1960s, small starter homes were the backbone of middle‑class wealth creation. Minimum lot size rules outlawed them. You cannot buy a modest home if the government requires every house to sit on an oversized, expensive piece of land.

7. Parking mandates inflate construction costs

Cities often require two or more parking spaces per unit, even near transit. These mandates can eliminate entire projects or add tens of thousands of dollars per unit. They have nothing to do with safety and everything to do with political pressure from existing homeowners.

8. Building codes have become bloated and outdated

Safety codes make sense. But modern building codes often include requirements that have nothing to do with safety and everything to do with bureaucratic inertia. When 40 percent of the cost of an apartment is compliance, not materials or labor, the system is broken.

9. The “bureaucrat tax” adds $100,000 per unit

Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers recently highlighted how local rules add an average of $100,000 to the cost of a new home. In high‑demand areas, the burden is even higher. No amount of subsidies can overcome a regulatory surcharge this large.

10. Churches could help—if the government let them

Churches often sit on land in single‑family zones. When they try to build small, affordable units as part of their mission, neighbors and zoning boards block them. Virginia churches spent half a million dollars and five years trying to get permission to build housing before the state finally intervened.

11. The managerial state replaced property rights

James Burnham’s “managerial revolution” describes how unelected planners replaced market‑driven land use with centralized control. Once property rights gave way to bureaucratic veto power, scarcity became inevitable. The crisis is not a market failure. It is a planning failure.

Conclusion: What Caused the Housing Affordability Crisis — And What Must Change

The housing affordability crisis didn’t emerge from greed, immigration, or demographic shifts. It emerged from a century‑long political decision to replace property rights with managerial control. When governments restrict where people can build, how they can build, and what they can build, scarcity is the only possible outcome.

If Americans want abundant, affordable housing again, the solution is not another federal program. It is restoring the freedom to build. The path out of the crisis begins where the crisis began: with the rules that made housing artificially scarce.

Additional Resources

• James Burnham, The Managerial Revolution
• Michael Shellenberger, San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities
• Bryan Caplan and Ady Branzei, Build, Baby, Build: The Science and Ethics of Housing Regulation