As it was explained to me, the new housing is just built further and further out - where there are no “legacy” homeowners subsidized with low taxes by newcomer suckers buying in later; sounds like this is exactly why people are commuting 100 miles to their jobs. The “build upwards” you describe is in the cities; my friend was describing issues in the suburbs (growing outward, away from the most “heavily developed/highest penalties for newcomers” areas.
Does that make sense?
Depends on the definition of 'suburb'. We live in San Mateo county, suburbs to the south of San Francisco city. For the longest time it was mostly residential neighborhoods consisting of mainly 1-story ranch homes with a sprinkling of 2-story homes. The Silicon Valley tech explosion changed everything. San Francisco always had residential towers, but is now experiencing runaway crowded conditions. The overflow of buyers seeking space moved their attention to surrounding suburbs, which are now up in arms over becoming mini-"San Franciscos". This is within perhaps 50 miles radius of SF. We were in a sleepy residential town. Now we're being overrun with construction cranes building skyscrapers among our homes, and the streets are having problems dealing with traffic jams. We have companies building here, each bringing in 1,000 employees, while there is not enough housing for them; so city councils changed zoning laws permitting high-rise residential towers where they used to only allow single-family dwellings. Homes that used to sell for $100,000 a few decades ago are now well over $1 million. In my town South San Francisco, which is well south of SF in another county, minimum price to buy a home is $1 million. My kids can't afford that. One daughter moved out of state where homes are $200,000 and nicer. Another daughter rents nearby for $3000/month. She lived for a while in Kansas and Texas where it was much cheaper, but moved back to SSF because she missed it (plus making three times the money here). If you lived here, you would see daily that there is a lack of space to build housing while there is an influx of people wanting the good paying jobs, and no one likes commuting due to congested freeways. There is space way out there where there are no jobs, so that is creating the pressure to build upwards in suburbs which are tapped out.