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It could yeah, but either way with a growing country you still need to build homes and anti housing policy will therefore be an issue no matter what. In fact it will be an issue even if the population stays the same, as old housing deteriorates/gets destroyed/etc and is no longer able to be built within new zoning rules. So many cities have homes now that would be literally illegal.
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/why-much-of-manhattan-would-be-illegal-to-build-today/
If demand stays the exact same but supply shrinks, then prices still go up!
The amount of new housing is going up though, and the rate is actually increasing, from about 890k in 2014 to 1.6m in 2024. Are you sure this is a general problem, and not a "trendy cities misruled by Democrats" problem?
Is the rent affordable? No? Then there is not enough housing being built. If the rate is increasing, then it is not increasing fast enough.
The only state that has affordable rent because of an increase in supply (as opposed to affordable houses because of a lack of demand, which is to say, because nobody wants to live there) is Texas. Even Austin, its most heavily regulated city, is experiencing an incredible reduction in rent year after year. Let alone other, less regulated, cities, like Dallas and Houston.
Every other state has this issue, including Republican states like Florida. Zoning is the problem. Building is the solution.
How fast do you expect it to go? Doubling in 10 years isn't enough? Well, it's definitely not when 3 times the total accumulation of new housing is brought into the country in the form of government-subsidized illegal immigrants in just a few years. Imagine if demand for housing were 10-30 million people lower.
"Twice nothing is still nothing."
--Cyrano Jones, The Trouble with Tribbles
Doubling over 10 years is pathetic. During WWII, the US restructured its entire economy to produce planes and tanks and ships over 4 years. The housing crisis is our great war, and we are losing. It is not an economic problem; it is a political problem. The capacity is there.
Those immigrants could be helping to build enough housing for everyone; the construction industry is heavily Hispanic. They are just not allowed to, because nobody is allowed to solve the problem.
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