I honestly don't know what the answer is.

I've resorted to moving way out. I'm probably going to buy a house somewhere I can work remote from.

I'm not paying 300K+ for a small home near a city with jobs, sorry, it's just not happening. Whether I can afford it or not is irrelevant, the value just isn't there other than as a proxy for "this now allows me to get higher paying jobs in the city and... continue the cycle?"

I think this is something that really needs to be addressed from a climate perspective as well.

It is cheaper, dramatically so, for me to live way out, buy a car, and use it for everything. I use an electric car, and I chuck a load of the savings into offsetting, and I'm pretty sure I'm negative.

But a far better model would be if people just stopped the rent seeking bullshit and let me build close to town.