“Ownership affordability.” This is the conceptual lodestar for the stories we tell ourselves about the housing crisis at the family dinner table, in news media, and in legislatures. The noble losers in this tale are the people who did all the right things — those would-be homeowners born at the wrong time.

True, these would-be buyers were maybe screwed by investors, whose speculative housing ventures were aided and abetted by obliging governments. But such investments simply hastened the collective action problem posed by inadequate supply in a deeply privatized market. The whole sad saga is nothing other than the merciless functioning of the market, a story as natural as the changing of the seasons.

North American rents continue to soar. This rise has not been confined to popular megacities and has increasingly spread to midsize jurisdictions as well. Driven by speculation, meager social housing, and lax regulation, the affordable rental crisis has intensified year over year for two decades. With exponential growth in the cost of living coast-to-coast, few exits present themselves to tenants looking for a way out.