Real estate prices growing astronomically in the last 50 years has very little to do with more wealthy people living in NY. The wealthy have always been here. The problem is the supply of housing hasn't increased much since WWII. The population of the state in 1945 was about 13M and about 20M today, a 50+% increase when the number of units has actually decreased, especially in Manhattan and brownstone Brooklyn. If you want more housing to be affordable, you need to advocate for building more housing and calling out NIMBYs any chance you can.