In this age of political and ideological polarization, it’s rather extraordinary when progressives and libertarians find themselves on common ground. But that’s what happened last week at the Cato Institute’s policy forum on affordable housing.

Progressives on the panel wanted higher urban densities to allow more people to live in central cities, while their libertarian counterparts pushed for less market restrictions on the supply side. But both were in general agreement that too much government regulation is the real reason that affordable shelter is still too hard to find for many Americans.