The US however is a huge plot of land with varying housing prices across the country, even if you had foreigners buying properties, it doesn't have the same impact on the country as it does in NZ/AU/Canada.
Populations:
Canada: 38m
Australia: 25m
New Zealand: 5m
US: 332m
The impact hurts us more than the US.
That might be technically correct on the build part, but the US government used to subsidize home ownership through loans as described in [1], e.g.
> GI Bill benefits that guarantied home loans helped many Americans buy houses and move into the suburbs.
But the actual building of homes is left to the private sector, which is frequently banned from building new homes by local governments.
It’s a strange situation: the Feds promote home ownership, while local governments make home ownership difficult by limiting the number of homes that can be built. It’s little wonder the housing market is so dysfunctional.
I will make one point: in the US, it’s never been the government’s job to build homes. That’s always been left primarily to the private sector. Right now however, governments won’t allow the private sector to build enough homes. They’ve made it illegal, especially apartments.
It’s like if the government banned the production of new cars. In a few years time, a 1995 Honda accord would be worth $20,000.