How the US made affordable homes illegal?

The US government accidentally made affordable homes illegal by changing the rules for how houses are built and sold.

Imagine you're building a toy house with blocks. At first, you can use any number of blocks to make your house as big or small as you want. But then someone says, "Now every house must have exactly 20 blocks!" That makes some toy houses too expensive, especially if you only need 10 blocks.

This is what happened with real homes. The government said that all new homes had to be "fairly large", like they needed at least two bedrooms and a certain size kitchen. This rule made it harder for people to build or buy smaller, cheaper homes because the rules didn’t allow for smaller houses anymore.

Some people wanted to live in small homes that cost less money, maybe even in the same neighborhood where bigger houses were being built. But if the law said only big houses could be made, then small homes became illegal in some places.

It’s like trying to play with your favorite toy house when all the rules say you have to use 20 blocks, even if you just need 10!