[zten]

> Not sure the details of Omaha, but where I live in Los Angeles, insane building codes make it incredibly difficult to profitably develop affordable housing. The very nice apartments I lived in when I lived in Tokyo would all have been illegal in Los Angeles.

That's not what affordable housing is. You probably didn't live in affordable housing in Tokyo (edit: of course I could be wrong, but it's not my first guess). Yes, your housing was affordable. But affordable housing in US cities is subsidized and price capped, with income restrictions.

[jaredklewis]

Well it wasn’t affordable housing in that sense, but it was affordable in the more general sense: my rent in Tokyo was around 15% the median Tokyo salary. Good luck finding that in California.