Rent prices are dependent almost exclusively on local market circumstances, and essentially all urban markets are plagued by a drastic lack of supply due to underbuilding of housing for decades

That would explain a gradual increase in housing costs over decades, but it doesn't explain housing costs skyrocketing in only a few years.

combined with more and more people wanting to move to cities.

What in the world for? I can't imagine wanting to live in conditions like that.

The federal government doesn’t actually have that much authority to regulate housing, which is something generally relegated to the states.

Well, they're failing catastrophically, and almost no one seems to be complaining. Do people like paying outrageous property taxes?

However, Biden has provided some incentives for loosening zoning codes and some other programs to encourage more housing construction, though there’s a lot of work that needs to be done.

That isn't going to do anyone any good as long as billionaires are allowed to hoard real estate.

Democrat state and local governments have absolutely done a horrendous job here as well, to be clear, though California at least is beginning to change course out of raw necessity.

California is the worst of them. My family and I fled California in the early 2000s because of extreme housing costs. Last I heard, our modest suburban house sold for over a million dollars. Madness. The whole place must be a giant slum by now, with dozens of people per house.