Houston has been able to keep its housing affordable in large part because of just this, he said.
Jeff Tucker, the chief economist at Zillow, also told Insider that the biggest hurdle to affordable housing was "zoning reform."
California has already done this when its citizens voted to pass Proposition 46, which provides funding specifically for affordable housing.
It allocated just shy of $1 billion to the multifamily sector, according to CCIM, and is expected to see $13 billion in private funds be pushed into affordable housing.
In July, Ginnie Mae, a federally-backed mortgage provider, specifically focused on affordable housing, requested that a manufactured home mortgage program be extended.