And when your PE firm owns significant share of homebuilders, owns large tracts of land, and owns politicians, lobbying groups, think tanks, and economists, then you can effectively game the market to maximize your personal returns at the expense of everyone else.
They wouldn’t be buying 1 out of every 4 homes and bankrolling schemes to “unlock homeowner equity” (HEOCs, reverse mortgages, etc) if they thought this would be a resolved issue anytime soon. That’s exactly why government needs to get involved and force divestiture.