Don't own a house, only rent a small apartment in a dense urban setting. Don't own the means to your own transportation, only get by with walking and transit. Price meats so high most people can't afford them regularly.
1. Supply being limited because America outlawed dense urban construction decades ago. Dense cities cannot legally expand to meet demand and building up gets more expensive and unrealistic after a certain number of floors.
2. People in suburbs being further away from lucrative jobs - i.e. proximity to one's work is priced into the cost of the home.
3. Various government subsidies and tax credits that distort the market to produce more resource-intensive suburban housing.
It's not like the government subsidies and tax credits exist even though nobody wants them. They exist because, once again, that's what voters have suggested they want when they go to the polls.