I'm not sure what you mean about no U.S. city building its way out of an affordability crisis...but cities like Dallas and Houston have reasonable housing prices at $245K and $185K median home price respectively. Price is a function of supply and demand.
It can be tough to compare cities directly. Often apples and oranges.
Houston for example sprawls out to the horizon, which surely makes new development simpler, but this isn’t a path than most NW cities such as Vancouver BC, Seattle and Portland would follow.
