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It might not look different but it feels different - year round weather is great Coastal SoCal has the best weather in the world. Natural beauty in beaches & p

It might not look different but it feels different - year round weather is great Coastal SoCal has the best weather in the world. Natural beauty in beaches & parks LA & SF are world class cultural powerhouses. Silicon Valley is the tech capital of the world How can it not be expensive ?

DiscourseFan 3y ago
Its expensive just because its desirable? Housing doesn't work like a commodity you can ship around the world. Everyone needs a place to live, and having more housing for everyone who wants to live in an area only increases economic productivity. There is still more than enough space, even in the bay area, even near LA, to build housing, its just that the people elected to local offices also happen to be the same people who don't want the value of their houses to decrease. So instead of having to live next to lower-income residents, they get to live next to the homeless, who come in surging, ever-increasing waves. Why is it better for California that all these people who could be housed, educated, fed, are left without a private domicile--it seems better only for those select few who happen to own good property.
panick21_ 3y ago
> How can it not be expensive ? By having supply increasing with demand. It will likely never be as cheap as some place in bum fuck nowhere. But it could still be much cheaper. Specially if you take into account both living and transportation cost.
- xp84 3y ago
  You are assuming that demand is not elastic though. If 1,000,000 more houses were built in the desirable parts of CA and filled with new residents, are you completely sure that there wouldn’t still be at least as many people seeking to live there as this year? It would still be just as temperate and any dip in prices would be seized on as a great opportunity to snap up a home, increasing demand. I suspect the equilibrium price of housing would barely change at all. I am still very pro-development, but I don’t actually think it would get cheaper to live in these places - just because there’s such a plentiful supply of more people to move there.

DiscourseFan 3y ago

Its expensive just because its desirable? Housing doesn't work like a commodity you can ship around the world. Everyone needs a place to live, and having more housing for everyone who wants to live in an area only increases economic productivity. There is still more than enough space, even in the bay area, even near LA, to build housing, its just that the people elected to local offices also happen to be the same people who don't want the value of their houses to decrease. So instead of having to live next to lower-income residents, they get to live next to the homeless, who come in surging, ever-increasing waves. Why is it better for California that all these people who could be housed, educated, fed, are left without a private domicile--it seems better only for those select few who happen to own good property.

panick21_ 3y ago

> How can it not be expensive ? By having supply increasing with demand. It will likely never be as cheap as some place in bum fuck nowhere. But it could still be much cheaper. Specially if you take into account both living and transportation cost.

xp84 3y ago
You are assuming that demand is not elastic though. If 1,000,000 more houses were built in the desirable parts of CA and filled with new residents, are you completely sure that there wouldn’t still be at least as many people seeking to live there as this year? It would still be just as temperate and any dip in prices would be seized on as a great opportunity to snap up a home, increasing demand. I suspect the equilibrium price of housing would barely change at all. I am still very pro-development, but I don’t actually think it would get cheaper to live in these places - just because there’s such a plentiful supply of more people to move there.