I think a lot of this is companies buying up the property for rental or flipping purposes, since the pandemic caused mass emigration to larger quarters. Hopefully it will die down in a year or so.

I believe that we should make some sort of law that says that a private company may not own a single family home (its first sale in the case of new construction, to allow for the company that built it), only multi-family dwellings, the only exception to this being foreclosure by bank and immediate sale for no more than 20% higher than the amount owed on the mortgage. Any landlord disputes are immediately directed to the owner of the home and their personal assets are on the line.

Obviously the law would not be that simple, but the intent is to stop businesses with stupid amounts of cash from manipulating the single-family home market and leaving no inventory for purchase by individuals. An apartment complex is much more difficult for a single family to run effectively, necessitating business and investor ownership. But if affordable housing is available, then the rent can't be too high or people would move.