Dumb laws made it prohibitively expensive to build most places, then idiotic monetary policy of the fed caused price explosions particularly during the COVID era. Then all the real estate got locked up in near 0% mortgages people will never give up locking my family out of a home almost anywhere

In short, I got priced out most everywhere and had to go where land is cheap and I was allowed to DIY a shack. Strong property rights and practically unrestricted gun laws here though mean there is at least some protection despite basically no law enforcement.