Assuming there is no housing bubble and maybe thinking outside of the box (or not)..is there a way to implement 40 year home loans and somehow cap lender interest rates to something more reasonable to make the current level of housing prices more affordable?
That said, where I live also has some other factors that need to be addressed to make current housing affordable here.
1. I pay $10+k in property tax alone based on a house that has a current taxable value of roughly $660k (with a zillow est value of over $900k). My father in law, whose house is est worth over $1.2 mil, pays less than $1500 in property tax because the taxable value of his house is only $87k. Prop 13 has seriously ****ed up property taxes and housing prices in California.
2. Insurance. I keep seeing friends losing their home insurance because the major companies are pulling out of the state or refusing to insure in risk areas (even cancelling existing policies when someone scored s 4 out of 30 for fire risk). This leaves them often with only high priced insurance options. Until this is fixed, I can't imagine housing being affordable again here.