Pay ~$300k for a house in Tokyo, which will cost you +/- $10k down [+] and ~$1k a month for a mortgage. Japanese underwriting standards would consider this doable at a household income of approximately $2.8k a month or so.

c.f. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGbC5j4pG9w

[+] I realize that number is surprising, and I would have found it surprising up until ~3 weeks ago, but I can assure you that this product is presently commercially available in Tokyo, including to people who do not exactly smash Japanese banks' definition of "desirable client."

You are thinking about this wrong.

For every apartmemt complex that gets built, that is X many LESS people who are competing to buy that suburb house that you love.

The suburbs will still exist. But more appartments in the city means that prices go down for everyone.

Then you should probably not be living in an area where land is in short supply and high demand.

Earn more or move or commute longer.

Or vote and be politically active.

Ignoring that as a rational choice for many people already in expensive areas is just asking for your proposals to fail.

We very frequently talk about the economic value that could be produced by different housing actions, but policy is not purely determined by economic value. I know more people opposed to upzoning because they like their yards and their space than because they're worried about their property values (denser cities in the US are very rarely cheaper).

Or work remotely

Pay up the real value of a house in a city.

I’d be happy to live in a condo, but live in a house instead, because you can’t really build condos here. I’m sure there’s somebody else who would like to live in my house.

Then move out to the suburbs? Don’t force the city to stay suburban to accommodate your snowflake preferences.

Leave. Or ask millions of people to kindly stop existing.

Then you will be ostracized on HN for not being pro-urban.

No one is ostracized, just confronted with economic reality of competition for space and the laws that distort it. I love living in a house but it’s a little silly to mandate that a house is the only thing that can legally be built on land that’s valued at over $2M/acre.

Aesthetic reasons are the worst reason to be anti-urban.