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I am glad a few people get this. High housing prices are an unmitigated disaster. They are sometimes a symptom of something good (a robust job market) but often
by michaelochurch 14y ago
I am glad a few people get this. High housing prices are an unmitigated disaster. They are sometimes a symptom of something good (a robust job market) but often not even that.
For that, high housing prices have more to do with supply disruptions and destruction than with demand, because housing prices are extremely inelastic. A 1% drop in supply can push rents or prices up by 20% or more. (Ask New York.) Mouth-breathing bourgeois fuckheads clap their fat hands together when prices rise and say, "People really want to live here!" No, fuckface. What actually happened is that all those stupid NIMBY regulations made it impossible for anyone to fucking build, and so there's a supply crunch, making prices and rents three times as high as they should be.
This also explains why New York real estate prices went up after 9/11 (except for Lower Manhattan, which dipped for a few months and then went up) and will probably do so after Sandy. It was speculation driven by the possibility of future supply destruction, which would be bad for the few thousand people affected but increase overall price levels.
- sjg007 14y agoI agree. Nimbys and current owners prevent the building of higher density and modern housing. You would hope that the Federal government would step in because new construction would create jobs. Also in the Bay area, you could add lots of higher density housing near the Caltrain and gain that way.
- guelo 14y agoAgree. Especially in the south bay/peninsula, you have all the millionaire NIMBYs preventing the area from becoming a new dense metropolis. It doesn't seem possible for cities like SF and Manhattan to be built today.
- devb 14y agoMy city's aging infrastructure is having trouble withstanding the population boom that's come with recent high density building. Sewers, traffic, and public transit are all suffering from unchecked construction. Sometimes NIMBYs have good reasons to fight development.
- danielweber 14y agoRising housing prices are very popular politically, though. I tend to agree with your analysis, but you must recognize the nature of your fight.
- eli_gottlieb 14y agoRising housing prices for owner occupiers are popular politically. Or at least, they were until the bubble popped and people started noticing that real household incomes had never risen to match the housing prices. The alignment of class interests has changed on this issue. Renters and net debtors are now the majority, rather than the bubble temporarily making every other owner-occupier into a net profiteer.