The 20th century is relevant because it had long periods of time where homes could be bought at high rental yields because there was lots of new construction in the USA.
There are some signs that this trend is reversing, but I think that was entirely a pandemic phenomenon. Big numbers of Americans regret their pandemic moves [regrets], so I think the environment hasn't actually changed.
It's hard to see where this goes. Most other places solve this by becoming very very dense (Hong Kong) or building great mass transit (Tokyo). It really seems like the US won't do either of those things--maaaaaaybe NYC will but that would be all. I tentatively predict that we have to wait for most of the Boomers to die and leave their wealth/houses to Millennials before we know if this is a bona-fide societal crisis or not: if enough Millennials get what they want this way it'll take the oomph out of any kind of policy change (probably reverse the momentum actually--if anyone thinks Millennials will be any better than Boomers they're super mistaken).
But, neither outcome is really good. On the one hand you have the daunting prospect of a dramatic economic reorganization of the most powerful nation on Earth. On the other you have the calcification of the most powerful nation on Earth into something fundamentally unequal, illiberal and corrupt.
[move]: https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/time-series/de...
[econ]: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/six-charts-illustrate-di...
[schools]: https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/education-g...
[health care]: https://www.gao.gov/blog/why-health-care-harder-access-rural...
[homeownership]: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/RHORUSQ156N
[urban homeownership]: https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2016/...
[regrets]:
Yes it can, and it was for large chunks of the 20th century. Imputed rent can have high yields and therefore imply good "investment" income for households with long term stable housing demand.