4 ms·

All the really nice places to live are becoming so expensive Doesn't need to be this way either. We've come up with a number of ways to lower real estate price

All the really nice places to live are becoming so expensive Doesn't need to be this way either. We've come up with a number of ways to lower real estate prices on this very board that simply aren't being implemented by local communities. I have to believe that 2024 is going to be a massive turning point for a lot of US cities.

nikanj 3y ago
The people who already own in the community vote against lowering real estate prices. The prospective future residents don't get a vote, so they lose every time.
- jimbob45 3y ago
  We've had countless discussions about this on HN. There are solutions that don't require outright lowering real estate prices. There's simply no motivation from local governments to acquire any momentum toward changing things. The "luxury high class" renters are seen as more desirable than anything else to boost local economies and everyone else is seen as disposable.
  - chimeracoder 3y ago
    > There are solutions that don't require outright lowering real estate prices. There really aren't. The upward pressure caused by the need to keep property values increasing will always, in the long run, outweigh any other policy that you can use to attempt to reign in cost-of-living. You can play tricks to delay the effects or slow them down, but adding drag resistance doesn't stop a falling leaf from trending downwards. Mathematically, you cannot lower cost-of-living while also insisting that the price of the single largest living cost (housing) keep increasing. The only alternative is to lower the price of housing, but you can't do that without lowering real estate values for existing landed property owners, so they fight that tooth and nail, in nearly every locality across the board.
  - nikanj 3y ago
    You can't eat your cake and have it too. You can't have cheaper homes and simultaneously not lower real estate prices.

nikanj 3y ago

The people who already own in the community vote against lowering real estate prices. The prospective future residents don't get a vote, so they lose every time.

jimbob45 3y ago
We've had countless discussions about this on HN. There are solutions that don't require outright lowering real estate prices. There's simply no motivation from local governments to acquire any momentum toward changing things. The "luxury high class" renters are seen as more desirable than anything else to boost local economies and everyone else is seen as disposable.
- chimeracoder 3y ago
  > There are solutions that don't require outright lowering real estate prices. There really aren't. The upward pressure caused by the need to keep property values increasing will always, in the long run, outweigh any other policy that you can use to attempt to reign in cost-of-living. You can play tricks to delay the effects or slow them down, but adding drag resistance doesn't stop a falling leaf from trending downwards. Mathematically, you cannot lower cost-of-living while also insisting that the price of the single largest living cost (housing) keep increasing. The only alternative is to lower the price of housing, but you can't do that without lowering real estate values for existing landed property owners, so they fight that tooth and nail, in nearly every locality across the board.
- nikanj 3y ago
  You can't eat your cake and have it too. You can't have cheaper homes and simultaneously not lower real estate prices.