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Lowering house prices in Silicon Valley by 70% would be trivial: Let developers build what they want to build, where they want to build it. Those with $1MM+ ho
by impendia 14y ago
Lowering house prices in Silicon Valley by 70% would be trivial: Let developers build what they want to build, where they want to build it.
Those with $1MM+ houses, however, oppose this for obvious reasons.
- alpine 14y agoThis is also the case in the UK. Property price here is a trivial expression of the supply/demand function. Yet no one from any of the political parties will suggest the obvious: build. Those with £1MM+ houses (which includes all our politicians) seem to be against this (for some reason).
- seachanged 14y agoYes, sewage treatment and treated water supplies are completely optional for successful development, and unnecessarily increase the price of the house that is serviced by them. You can provide you own protection, so you don't need the police (I'm actually half-serious on that), and firefighting is just a scam. Why, I bet that you could find an insurance company that would insure your house without it being protected by a fire district. Heck, you don't need homeowners insurance at all! Just buy your cheap house outright, and there's no need! And zoning laws? Who needs them! People can live just as comfortably downwind of a sewage treatment plant or an oil refinery as they can by a lake! It's a scam, front to back! And to answer the poster's original question, why is housing so expensive, read Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations." Even if you just pick it apart, and read the chapters you want, it's a fascinating description of .. well, the wealth of nations. Rents are part of that equation, and he covers it.