This is fundamentally flawed reasoning. The pieces of land that are most desirable in cities" are already built on, and in many high demand urban areas when older and less desirable structures are sold they are being rapidly converted to higher density housing. There is an explosion of this activity in Silicon Valley, in case you haven't visited in the last couple of years, as well as here in Salt Lake City, another high demand area. Such development comes at a cost of course, higher congestion and traffic, a lowering of quality of life on many metrics, and the pandemic has caused an increase in demand for suburban style houses with larger footprints and yards, and closer proximity to open spaces. People and businesses have also adopted remote work practices that won't disappear, and a new American frontier in depressed real estate markets is opening where the bang for the real estate buck is comparatively huge.

Zoning laws reflect the wishes of the residents in the zoning area...as they should, and changes are legion. In Salt Lake SFR owners resisted detached "mother in laws" and garage/basement apartments until recently, now that has changed, particularly as the additional income prospects became more important.