2 ms·

I would expect the competition to work the same way it does in laptops, cars or food: producing everything from cheapest-still-legal options to outright luxury.

I would expect the competition to work the same way it does in laptops, cars or food: producing everything from cheapest-still-legal options to outright luxury. We have this sort of choice in most sectors of the economy. BTW A mediocre apartment in your name is still an apartment. I grew up in one, but in our then-relatively-precarious family situation, the fact that we weren't renting and no one could just throw us out made a lot of other problems and crises way, way more bearable. Even though the bathroom was subpar and the kitchen horribly old. We shouldn't be dismissive of lower quality products if they still can provide value to their owners.

array_key_first 11mo ago
The problem is housing, in general, is a an inelastic good - we can't just apply free market thinking to it, it doesn't work. For a few reasons: 1. It takes a really long time to develop housing in a meaningful way, like on the order of decades to build communities. 2. People don't actually really choose where to live, it's a lot like hospitals. You live where your job is, which means the more economically strong a place is (city) the more housing you need. Which is why cities are dense. It might sound obvious, but it's not like choosing which brand of cereal to buy.