> When people throw around the word shortage what they mean is "availability at a price I'm willing to pay." Same with labor shortages. Yeah that's actually an

> When people throw around the word shortage what they mean is "availability at a price I'm willing to pay." Same with labor shortages. Yeah that's actually an incomplete and oversimplified statement. Some people think, "If you want something, just pay more". But that ignores short and long-run supply limits, price frictions, skill matching, and more. The correct Econ 101 version reads: "A shortage exists when, at the going price, the quantity people want to buy is greater than the quantity suppliers are willing or able to provide—labor markets included." You cannot expect imperfect markets (i.e. real world markets) to clear simply by raising or lowering prices. Real-world constraints exist. A simple example is this: Chicago has plenty of cheap, vacant units in higher-crime pockets of the South Side, but few buyers will take them. Meanwhile, exurbs with good schools and low crime have limited inventory because zoning caps and NIMBY politics choke new construction. That mismatch -- ample supply where demand is weak and capped supply where demand is strong -- creates a local housing shortage even though the citywide vacancy rate looks high. Price alone can't clear the market because the constraint is about where units are, not how many exist.