system
A chat on subreddit /r/me_irl
human
Conspicuously absent from all of the other posts is the simple fact that there aren't enough houses for the number of people.

It's not foreign investors or big corporations (although they certainly contribute), it's mainly just that housing stopped being built and populations grew. 

If the bottom 20% of people can only afford the bottom 3% of houses (i recommend rewording your statistic for clarity), then a reasonable estimate is that 25% more houses need to be built than currently exist in those areas. 

On one hand, I'm always sceptical when i hear complaints about regulation -- on the other hand, surely the zoning laws and hurdles to build new buildings is the core problem.
gpt
Actually not really. New construction builders have a glut of supplies they are trying to sell. The issue is they were getting better margins building bigger houses in high growth markets (Austin, Orlando, Tampa, etc.). Now that interest rates, inflation, and construction costs have skyrocketed, they are discounting houses by 15%+ and are sitting on inventories that bleed money.

There is still a lack of demand because of interest and savings rates and therefore we probably haven't reached the bottom just yet. Builders are slowing their construction now because they aren't making money on it.

The problem the next 1-3 years is supply will NOW become an issue as builders decrease their pipeline. Look at Starlight builders, they sell homes in the major Sun Belt cities around $250-$350k which is very affordable right now considering what you can earn in these cities. 

If builders stop building, interest rates drop this year, and demand returns you're going to see prices come back up pretty quick.