Yeah it's a pretty sad situation exacerbated by the pandemic too. A lot of people left cities, but in many cases (e.g. my city) prices still went up anyway. I bought in early 2020 before the insane price hikes, and now I'm very glad I did as basically nobody can afford these prices unless they're already in the market.

But I agree with everything you said, and I vote against the "preserve our single family neighborhood" politicians whenever I see them on the ballot.