Hi, I'm an entrepreneur looking for a startup idea.
In my experience, the reason most startups fail is because they never actually solve anyone's problem. So I'm cheating and starting out by identifying a specific person with a specific problem.
So I'm asking you, what's the most annoying part of your life/job? Also, how much would you pay for a solution?
This is what I have gathered:
Finding housing is not the hard problem. The hard problem is finding housing in a place you actually want to live. If you're willing to live anywhere in America, there are lots of dying cities with abandoned houses for you to squat in. But you're not going to get a job in those cities.
The reason housing is expensive in the places you want to live is because there are laws that restrict the creation of new housing (either directly or by making construction expensive through regulation). The reason those laws are in place are because of a mixture of
rent seeking on the part of existing homeowners who want to maintain the value of their houses
people who want the place they live to continue to be a nice place to live, and ability to afford expensive housing is the only means by which they are allowed to discriminate against people who will change that