Seriously. So many people have a low-information understanding of the housing market, and think that homebuilders somehow aren't rational actors. Why would peop

Seriously. So many people have a low-information understanding of the housing market, and think that homebuilders somehow aren't rational actors. Why would people who make their money building houses be into lowering their profit margins and causing pricing shocks for their existing stock of houses that are in construction? Developers are incentivized to charge what the market will bear. It is public policy's job to reform the incentives so other market players see opportunities to build lower-priced and lower-margin housing stock - I think the best way to do this is to make public lending corporations that will provide 3% construction loans, which are far more attractive than the 8% to 10% presently charged by institutional lenders. Couple that with expedited permitting for these projects, and tie them to affordability standards, and that's a market disruption that makes sense for most people. But simply deregulating and hoping that prices will fall never, ever works.