The Starter Home is extinct. And it’s not because of BlackRock. If you listen to the ragebait, the story is simple: The system is rigged, hedge funds are buying every house, and you’ve been priced out by corporate greed. But the reality is more boring, and it's much harder to fix. In 1950, a home cost 3x your salary. Today, the median home costs 7x (or 11x in California). But we aren't buying the same product. Look at the chart below. In 1950, the "American Dream" was a 983-square-foot plywood box. It had two tiny bedrooms, one bathroom, and no air conditioning. It was shelter, not an asset. Today, the "entry-level" standard is over 2,700 square feet. We demand granite countertops, two-car garages, energy-efficient windows, and central air. We didn't just get poorer. Our definition of "minimum" got massive. What was a luxury earlier is a necessity now. Which is fine, but it brings up the uncomfortable question: Why can’t we just build the small ones again? Why is it so hard in most cities to build a simple, affordable 1950s-style home?

US entrepreneurial activity is migrating from traditional hubs like California to more rural Western and Southern states