Comment by solaxun

I think the point is that given typical demand, the amount of supply would have been sufficient to not cause meteoric price increases. Demand exploded due to incompetent monetary policy driving a speculative mania, and that demand was what gave the appearance of a supply constraint. Until recently housing starts were at a 10 year high, and they are still on the higher-end of the past decade: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=Rzky