Every generation since the Boomers has been less likely to own a home than the one before it. That's not just a vibe — it's the data, and it should alarm anyone who believes that building wealth and financial independence are core pillars of a free society.

National figures show Gen Z homeownership hovering around 30%, a number that would have been unthinkable for young Boomers who could snag a house on a single middle-class income. As one local Bay Area resident put it bluntly: "It's depressing, but I'm actually amazed to see Gen Z even this high."

And here's the thing — those are national numbers. In the Bay Area, the picture is almost certainly far worse. As one SF resident noted, "Most Gen Z folks that own a home here inherited it from their family." That's not homeownership driven by opportunity and hard work. That's a feudal wealth transfer dressed up in modern real estate listings.

So what's driving this? The usual suspects: decades of restrictive zoning, Byzantine permitting processes, environmental review abuse, and NIMBYism that treats every new housing development like a threat to civilization. Layer on inflation, stagnant real wages relative to housing costs, and interest rates that have roughly doubled in two years, and you've got a generational squeeze with no relief valve.

Government at every level — federal, state, and especially local — deserves enormous blame. San Francisco alone has spent years making it nearly impossible to build anything, anywhere, for anyone. The city's planning process is a masterclass in how bureaucracy kills opportunity. Every "community input session" that delays a housing project by months or years is another young person priced out of ownership and into permanent renting.

Homeownership isn't just a financial milestone — it's the single most reliable vehicle for middle-class wealth building in American history. When that ladder gets pulled up, you don't get a more equitable society. You get a society of landlords and tenants, haves and have-nots, insiders and everyone else.

If we're serious about economic liberty, we need to get serious about letting people build. Cut the red tape. Streamline approvals. Stop letting incumbent homeowners dictate who gets to join the club. The free market can solve this — but only if we actually let it work.