No people don't "just have the option to move away", that's an incredibly naive way to look at the world, some people need to be in certain locations for social or work reasons.
Also, what I'm saying isn't a "theory", it's an observation of data. You keep trying to rationalize it away, but whatever way you slice it you can't get rid of the 16 million vacant houses that are not in use, while we have half a million homeless people and rising costs housing costs.
You seem to be insinuating that people don't just buy up housing and sit on it, like that's not a phenomenon that exists because you can't fathom why, despite my last comment clearly outlining several reasons how it could happen, and more importantly the fact that it does actually happen.
Monopolies in certain areas. Your response? "They can move"
Holding onto vacant rent controlled apartments to force people into more expensive units. Your response? "It wastes money" (untrue, in this situation it makes more money, which is why it happens in the real world).
There are 16 million vacant housing units while we have half a million homeless people. Your response? Nothing, I guess those people's interests aren't as important as preserving the right for housing scalpers to hoard unused property.