its zoning that explains everything about today's home prices
Not really. Vancouver, one of the worst places in Canada for foreign investment driving up prices, has been adding new high density housing as fast as it can for 20 years now. One of the primary constraints is the construction trade that can't keep up with demand.
Not enough of Vancouver is zoned for middle density housing. If you opened up the zoning for Vancouver, you'd see the construction trade in Vancouver expand and more middle density constructed throughout the city, instead of limited patches of high density that can only be constructed by a limited set of developers able to get financing for such a huge project.
Here is the zoning map of Vancouver, 80% of it is zoned for low density development and this is the root of the problem:
https://i.redd.it/xy30s6tayvo91.png
Not really. Vancouver, one of the worst places in Canada for foreign investment driving up prices, has been adding new high density housing as fast as it can for 20 years now. One of the primary constraints is the construction trade that can't keep up with demand.