HOUSING COSTS ARE INFLUENCED BY A NUMBER OF FACTORS, THE LAW OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND DEFINITELY BEING ONE OF THEM

A couple of blogs I like had posts recently dealing with the impact of regulatory burden on housing costs.  While I don’t think that the difference in land use restrictions is the only reason that housing in Seattle is more than twice as costly as in Houston, as the Antiplanner says, it’s clearly a factor.  And I have observed first hand the phenomenon described by Coyote, that people who relocate to Arizona from other states can’t seem to make the connection between less regulation and lower housing costs.
I don’t claim to know much at all about economics.  The only econ class I took in college was taught by a grad student from Africa for whom English was his third language.  I’m interested in the subject anyway.  I wish I understood it better, but even I can recognize the law of supply and demand at work.