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Everyone should read the author's e-book (it's a really short ~30 min. read). http://www.amazon.com/The-Rent-Damn-High-ebook/dp/B0078XGJXO http://www.amazon.co

Everyone should read the author's e-book (it's a really short ~30 min. read). http://www.amazon.com/The-Rent-Damn-High-ebook/dp/B0078XGJXO http://www.amazon.com/The-Rent-Damn-High-ebook/dp/B0078XGJXO After reading his book, I am convinced that overpriced rent is a massively important problem that makes countless aspects of society worse. I've read that people spend roughly 1/3 of income on housing, 1/3 on food and 1/3 on everything else. The long term trend in the U.S. has been to greatly reduce the % of our income we spend on food (due to agricultural and tech innovation). We need to do the same for housing prices over the next 20 years. A small space to live for one person in NY or SF should simply not cost ~30% of your annual income! The materials are very cheap to build a square box! And there is lots of vertical room in our nicest cities to build square boxes. The issue is solely constrained supply due to building regulations (many at the local level). For tech leaders in SF, this seems like it should be the next big political fight (after immigration).

lucaspiller 13y ago
Looks good, but it's not available in the UK. Anything related?
- bradleyjg 13y ago
  The author has been a prolific blogger for around five years now. While he's moved around a bunch, his name is about as google-able as it gets (yg arrow pass the Norse world tree thing).
- jseliger 13y ago
  Send me an e-mail, and you should have an e-mail address in your profile. Edward Glaeser's The Triumph of the City covers the same ground in a more academic tone and is available in the UK.
Steko 13y ago
It's a great read. Don't be dissuaded by the low ratings at Amazon; they're from conservative trolls over comments he made after the death of Breitbart. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/06/andrew-breitbart-fans-matthew-yglesias-amazon_n_1324362.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/06/andrew-breitbart-fa...
- jupiterjaz 13y ago
  The ironic thing it that deregulating zoning laws is something that conservatives commonly argue for. Well maybe not conservatives but libertarians do.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
err_badprocrast 13y ago
I'm guessing the only reason people don't spend a larger percentage of their income on rent is that most landlords require, as an absolute minimum, 3x rent as income per month. Speaking of which, that rule will probably force me to get a job that I don't need just to rent an apartment as a student.
wes-exp 13y ago
What about solving this on the technology side? We have fantastic technology in many aspects of life, but housing seems practically unchanged. I mean, buildings are constructed by teams of men placing pieces of wood by hand. Is that really the best we can do? Dear VCs, you think a billion dollars is cool? How about a trillion dollars? Housing is that big. For instance: http://gizmodo.com/5045863/concrete+jet-printer-gets-caterpillar-funding-print+out-houses-on-the-way http://gizmodo.com/5045863/concrete+jet-printer-gets-caterpi... If Caterpillar, a hyper-conservative, risk-averse organization can fund this kind of stuff, surely VCs can.
- Tuna-Fish 13y ago
  > We have fantastic technology in many aspects of life, but housing seems practically unchanged. I mean, buildings are constructed by teams of men placing pieces of wood by hand. That's simply not true. The kind of high-intensity housing he is talking about is built by arranging large pre-fab pieces on steel frame. In modern tower buildings, the pre-fab pieces are built on an assembly line and actually finished and furnished before bringing them on site and placing them on buildings. It's a much more efficient industry than concrete jet printers ever could be.
  - wes-exp 13y ago
    Sorry, by "buildings" I wasn't specifically referring to steel towers. Obviously these aren't merely made of wood. Whether we're talking about one and two story constructions, or tall towers, I still feel that there must be room for "more, better, faster, cheaper" through technology here. I won't be satisfied until everyone can afford (but not necessarily chooses to purchase) their own mansion-sized living space, cheaply.
    - coldtea 13y ago
      Were I'm from NO building is made of wood period. I don't get why Americans pay top dollars for "houses" made of wood, plastic, etc, and with crappy construction (I've lived in several all around the US). I'd take EU-style bricks, concrete, stones, etc any day of the week.
dionidium 13y ago
Outside the book, this is also a frequent topic on his blog. I highly recommend reading some of his previous thoughts on this. It's land that is valuable, not the construction on it. And we should be maximizing that value.

lucaspiller 13y ago

Looks good, but it's not available in the UK. Anything related?

bradleyjg 13y ago
The author has been a prolific blogger for around five years now. While he's moved around a bunch, his name is about as google-able as it gets (yg arrow pass the Norse world tree thing).
jseliger 13y ago
Send me an e-mail, and you should have an e-mail address in your profile. Edward Glaeser's The Triumph of the City covers the same ground in a more academic tone and is available in the UK.

Steko 13y ago

It's a great read. Don't be dissuaded by the low ratings at Amazon; they're from conservative trolls over comments he made after the death of Breitbart. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/06/andrew-breitbart-fans-matthew-yglesias-amazon_n_1324362.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/06/andrew-breitbart-fa...

jupiterjaz 13y ago
The ironic thing it that deregulating zoning laws is something that conservatives commonly argue for. Well maybe not conservatives but libertarians do.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

err_badprocrast 13y ago

I'm guessing the only reason people don't spend a larger percentage of their income on rent is that most landlords require, as an absolute minimum, 3x rent as income per month. Speaking of which, that rule will probably force me to get a job that I don't need just to rent an apartment as a student.

wes-exp 13y ago

What about solving this on the technology side? We have fantastic technology in many aspects of life, but housing seems practically unchanged. I mean, buildings are constructed by teams of men placing pieces of wood by hand. Is that really the best we can do? Dear VCs, you think a billion dollars is cool? How about a trillion dollars? Housing is that big. For instance: http://gizmodo.com/5045863/concrete+jet-printer-gets-caterpillar-funding-print+out-houses-on-the-way http://gizmodo.com/5045863/concrete+jet-printer-gets-caterpi... If Caterpillar, a hyper-conservative, risk-averse organization can fund this kind of stuff, surely VCs can.

Tuna-Fish 13y ago
> We have fantastic technology in many aspects of life, but housing seems practically unchanged. I mean, buildings are constructed by teams of men placing pieces of wood by hand. That's simply not true. The kind of high-intensity housing he is talking about is built by arranging large pre-fab pieces on steel frame. In modern tower buildings, the pre-fab pieces are built on an assembly line and actually finished and furnished before bringing them on site and placing them on buildings. It's a much more efficient industry than concrete jet printers ever could be.
- wes-exp 13y ago
  Sorry, by "buildings" I wasn't specifically referring to steel towers. Obviously these aren't merely made of wood. Whether we're talking about one and two story constructions, or tall towers, I still feel that there must be room for "more, better, faster, cheaper" through technology here. I won't be satisfied until everyone can afford (but not necessarily chooses to purchase) their own mansion-sized living space, cheaply.
  - coldtea 13y ago
    Were I'm from NO building is made of wood period. I don't get why Americans pay top dollars for "houses" made of wood, plastic, etc, and with crappy construction (I've lived in several all around the US). I'd take EU-style bricks, concrete, stones, etc any day of the week.

dionidium 13y ago

Outside the book, this is also a frequent topic on his blog. I highly recommend reading some of his previous thoughts on this. It's land that is valuable, not the construction on it. And we should be maximizing that value.