3 ms·

All of those problems go away if you have sufficient supply of new housing.

by s1artibartfast 2y ago

dttze 2y ago
And all my problems would go away if I found a pot of gold. Sadly, neither of these things will happen.
- s1artibartfast 2y ago
  Not with that attitude. Lack of housing isn't a law of physics, It is a policy and social choice. There are many places with abundant housing, including places with high demand and good jobs. There are cities all over the world that grow, build affordable urban apartments, and build starter homes. You don't even have to look that hard for examples.
bradlys 2y ago
There are places not experiencing a housing shortage that are still seeing rents go up. When a sizable portion of the landed gentry decide to band together to do price fixing, supply doesn’t matter. Supply and demand don’t follow closely in the American market. There is a lot of collusion happening.
- kazinator 2y ago
  Yes even if they keep some places empty, which is a cost, they can more than make up for it. Say you have an apartment with 50 units. If you can keep 25 empty but charge double for the rest, it's all good. Plus the empty ones are not undergoing any wear and tear. It would be more profitable if the place had just 25 units that were all occupied, but what the hell. Now suppose you can charge triple.
taurath 2y ago
All we have to do is convince a large group of very active voters to vote for uncertainty and change in their neighborhood, it'll be easy!
kazinator 2y ago
Probably nobody wants to be the first to do this. Any region that tries to build supply, and bring about lower housing cost, will soon be overrun with migrants I will gobble up to supply. Housing people is not just putting walls and windows around them. They need transportation. They need water. They generate garbage and sewage. These are problems that don't go away when you build more housing, but are rather exacerbated.
- fc417fc802 2y ago
  At least in theory infrastructure should be covered by taxes so more people shouldn't be a problem in the long term. That assumes competent management and sensible voters though. Primarily I think politicians fear the possibility of real estate prices falling too rapidly. I think residents also fear change since if they don't like the result the cost to move is fairly high.
  - kazinator 2y ago
    Taxes don't solve the problem that water has to come from somewhere and garbage has to go somewhere and so on. The very increases themselves are undesirable; who pays for that is not the problem.
    - fc417fc802 2y ago
      Isn't garbage output the same, just in different locations? If anything further centralization of collection should be expected to reduce costs. Water is similar. I'll acknowledge that in a few specific geographic locations there are genuine concerns about the total available supply but that is not the norm. It also isn't some insurmountable problem unless you're in the middle of a vast inland desert (which departs even farther from the norm). If the local government is failing to oversee the necessary improvements to infrastructure then from my perspective that's a failure of the political process.
      - littlexsparkee 2y ago
        Also water use is lower in dense urban areas so you have to consider that there's a net gain from the move even if there's additional strain locally

All of those problems go away if you have sufficient supply of new housing.

dttze 2y ago

And all my problems would go away if I found a pot of gold. Sadly, neither of these things will happen.

s1artibartfast 2y ago
Not with that attitude. Lack of housing isn't a law of physics, It is a policy and social choice. There are many places with abundant housing, including places with high demand and good jobs. There are cities all over the world that grow, build affordable urban apartments, and build starter homes. You don't even have to look that hard for examples.

bradlys 2y ago

There are places not experiencing a housing shortage that are still seeing rents go up. When a sizable portion of the landed gentry decide to band together to do price fixing, supply doesn’t matter. Supply and demand don’t follow closely in the American market. There is a lot of collusion happening.

kazinator 2y ago
Yes even if they keep some places empty, which is a cost, they can more than make up for it. Say you have an apartment with 50 units. If you can keep 25 empty but charge double for the rest, it's all good. Plus the empty ones are not undergoing any wear and tear. It would be more profitable if the place had just 25 units that were all occupied, but what the hell. Now suppose you can charge triple.

taurath 2y ago

All we have to do is convince a large group of very active voters to vote for uncertainty and change in their neighborhood, it'll be easy!

kazinator 2y ago

Probably nobody wants to be the first to do this. Any region that tries to build supply, and bring about lower housing cost, will soon be overrun with migrants I will gobble up to supply. Housing people is not just putting walls and windows around them. They need transportation. They need water. They generate garbage and sewage. These are problems that don't go away when you build more housing, but are rather exacerbated.

fc417fc802 2y ago
At least in theory infrastructure should be covered by taxes so more people shouldn't be a problem in the long term. That assumes competent management and sensible voters though. Primarily I think politicians fear the possibility of real estate prices falling too rapidly. I think residents also fear change since if they don't like the result the cost to move is fairly high.
- kazinator 2y ago
  Taxes don't solve the problem that water has to come from somewhere and garbage has to go somewhere and so on. The very increases themselves are undesirable; who pays for that is not the problem.
  - fc417fc802 2y ago
    Isn't garbage output the same, just in different locations? If anything further centralization of collection should be expected to reduce costs. Water is similar. I'll acknowledge that in a few specific geographic locations there are genuine concerns about the total available supply but that is not the norm. It also isn't some insurmountable problem unless you're in the middle of a vast inland desert (which departs even farther from the norm). If the local government is failing to oversee the necessary improvements to infrastructure then from my perspective that's a failure of the political process.
    - littlexsparkee 2y ago
      Also water use is lower in dense urban areas so you have to consider that there's a net gain from the move even if there's additional strain locally