Think you've got it, independentlypoor.  What's happening to cities (what's happening to home prices) is a not a CAUSE but an EFFECT.  So, "solving" the high-cost housing "problem" is doomed if the causes of it aren't addressed.  

Believe you are correct when you say "Populations have only just grasped...."  
What now?  Another pussy-hat parade?  The 1% just laugh...

Tragic, but I don't see a sudden correction.  "A change is gonna come"...maybe.  But it may take generations.