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Not all space is the same, nobody wants to live in Gerlach, Nevada because there's nobody there and also because it's the middle of the desert, which in turn is

Not all space is the same, nobody wants to live in Gerlach, Nevada because there's nobody there and also because it's the middle of the desert, which in turn is why there's nobody there: https://web.archive.org/web/20210809032137/https://landequities.com/nevada/061-020-55 https://web.archive.org/web/20210809032137/https://landequit... Land in Gerlach goes for $0.0054/sqft Land in the heart of San Fran can go for $865.21/sqft That's 159,000 times more expensive. The increase comes from the fact that some land is more naturally productive than others, and also because of agglomeration effects: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economies_of_agglomeration#:~:text=Economies%20of%20agglomeration%20or%20agglomeration,major%20topic%20of%20urban%20economics.&text=It%20is%20the%20tension%20between,them%20from%20becoming%20too%20large https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economies_of_agglomeration#:~:....

323 5y ago
Pheonix is also in the middle of the desert: > Phoenix is officially America’s fastest-growing major city. https://news.yahoo.com/phoenix-nation-fastest-growing-big-170000990.html https://news.yahoo.com/phoenix-nation-fastest-growing-big-17...
- contrahax 5y ago
  Phoenix has some location advantages (large rivers flow into the valley, warmer climate, better soil for agriculture) than northern Nevada that makes it more desirable and spurred growth.
- larsiusprime 5y ago
  Phoenix was not just some random place in the desert that was as good as any other, it was founded because of a pre-existing canal system that the founders expanded upon that gave it much better access to water http://www.azheritagewaters.nau.edu/loc_hohokam.html http://www.azheritagewaters.nau.edu/loc_hohokam.html
fragmede 5y ago
Oh, a fellow Burner. Nearby Gerlach is Reno, the biggest little city in the world. It's 100 miles or 1 hr:45 mins away by car, 51 weeks of the year. With no income tax and a Tesla plant, Reno is thriving. Northern Nevada may have a lot of desolation, but the same rules of real estate apply - the three most important things are location, location, location. Land in Reno is expensive compared to Gerlach but cheap compared to downtown SF, at $270/sq ft (of course, SF being one of the most expensive cities in the US means everywhere is cheaper).
- larsiusprime 5y ago
  Yup! I actually forgot about Gerlach being associated with Burning Man (never been, myself). It just comes up when you search for "cheapest land in America." And yeah, my point is the same as yours -- it's always the location that matters. If you can somehow bootstrap yourself a desert-mega city in the world's worst location, then agglomeration effects take over and the land becomes valuable because people want to be next to other people. But typically desert cities get off the ground because there's something about the initial conditions of that particular piece of desert that's more interesting than everything around it (that's what happened with Phoenix with regards to the canals/water). Of course, once a critical mass of settlers shows up and sticks around long enough, wherever they happened to congregate is the most valuable location in the local area from then on.

323 5y ago

Pheonix is also in the middle of the desert: > Phoenix is officially America’s fastest-growing major city. https://news.yahoo.com/phoenix-nation-fastest-growing-big-170000990.html https://news.yahoo.com/phoenix-nation-fastest-growing-big-17...

contrahax 5y ago
Phoenix has some location advantages (large rivers flow into the valley, warmer climate, better soil for agriculture) than northern Nevada that makes it more desirable and spurred growth.
larsiusprime 5y ago
Phoenix was not just some random place in the desert that was as good as any other, it was founded because of a pre-existing canal system that the founders expanded upon that gave it much better access to water http://www.azheritagewaters.nau.edu/loc_hohokam.html http://www.azheritagewaters.nau.edu/loc_hohokam.html

fragmede 5y ago

Oh, a fellow Burner. Nearby Gerlach is Reno, the biggest little city in the world. It's 100 miles or 1 hr:45 mins away by car, 51 weeks of the year. With no income tax and a Tesla plant, Reno is thriving. Northern Nevada may have a lot of desolation, but the same rules of real estate apply - the three most important things are location, location, location. Land in Reno is expensive compared to Gerlach but cheap compared to downtown SF, at $270/sq ft (of course, SF being one of the most expensive cities in the US means everywhere is cheaper).

larsiusprime 5y ago
Yup! I actually forgot about Gerlach being associated with Burning Man (never been, myself). It just comes up when you search for "cheapest land in America." And yeah, my point is the same as yours -- it's always the location that matters. If you can somehow bootstrap yourself a desert-mega city in the world's worst location, then agglomeration effects take over and the land becomes valuable because people want to be next to other people. But typically desert cities get off the ground because there's something about the initial conditions of that particular piece of desert that's more interesting than everything around it (that's what happened with Phoenix with regards to the canals/water). Of course, once a critical mass of settlers shows up and sticks around long enough, wherever they happened to congregate is the most valuable location in the local area from then on.