There may be some factors that work against his conclusion. Higher end new properties might be built with less space efficiency than new middle or lower end pro

There may be some factors that work against his conclusion. Higher end new properties might be built with less space efficiency than new middle or lower end properties. So if you bulldoze a block of low rise apartments and build a couple massive single family homes, you are making housing prices worse overall. But I don't see much indication of that actually happening in high cost of living cities like SF, NYC, DC. If anything, new "high end" apartment buildings have very small units compared to older stock. It's also not always true over a small area of an entire housing market. If you bulldozed the poor areas of DC and rebuilt with dense luxury properties, the average rent in the city would go up, but the prices in the suburbs would fall. My experiences match this article very well. I live in the cheapest building in my neighborhood, probably 300-400 dollars below "market." But my unit was build in the 1960's as a luxury unit. It's huge, has large walk in closets, and has a "butler door." People who lived there originally were expected to have help. And now it is the shittiest building in the area. And my coworker is talking the other route. He lives in what was literally a crackhouse 10 years ago. Gentrification is much increased when you refused to build new high income property. Those higher income people just bid up low income property. I'd be shocked if the author was wrong.