Which brings us back to putting all your chips on a single asset class. Hannity and the hedgies avoid the risks, and seek superior returns on investment, by raising rents. With supplies tight in many areas, they have pricing power.

Rents went up an above-average 50 percent in five years at one of Hannity’s Georgia housing complexes, The Los Angeles Times reported. Not surprisingly, so did evictions — although his company also renovated the properties.

He’s a bit of a trendsetter. Housing Secretary Ben Carson suggested tripling the rent of people getting federal subsidies, an interesting anti-poverty solution. This while the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard reports that 11 million renters are still “severely burdened” by housing costs.

As the hedge funds and the Hannitys have thrived, many others find themselves unable to afford homes. There has been a pickup in construction and sales recently, but demand still outstrips supply. We’ve only recovered two-thirds of the construction needed to catch up with the increase in new households, according to Robert Dietz, chief economist of the National Association of Home Builders.

The Republican tax overhaul, which cuts taxes for the wealthy, will make it harder to afford a home. It slashed the number of people who can use mortgage interest deductions and limited to $10,000 the deduction for state and local taxes. Tariffs on Canadian softwood have pushed up lumber prices, adding a Trump Tax of $6,000 to the cost of building a new home, according to Mr. Dietz, who notes that “Every $1,000 increase prices out about 150,000 households.”

That is, if there are enough workers to even build homes. Despite adding 257,000 jobs over the last 12 months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the industry still needs some 200,000 workers, with some of that shortfall no doubt linked to current immigration policy, or the fear of it. The need is so great that the Home Depot Foundation is putting up $50 million to help train and hire skilled workers.

Mr. Hannity may be a sideshow. But as investors like him profit off the housing collapse, millennials struggle to find homes they can afford. Once again, average Americans struggle, while guys like Mr. Hannity thrive.