3 ms·

>>430 square-foot apartment with a wife and a baby while making six figures Just because you chose a horrible situation doesn't mean that should be the mean.

>>430 square-foot apartment with a wife and a baby while making six figures Just because you chose a horrible situation doesn't mean that should be the mean. Many people live in a dirt-floored hut with no electricity or running water and that doesn't indicate that we should find that to be acceptable rather than trying to raise the global standard. That sort of thinking led to the ridiculousness that is SF/NYC real-estate. There are other parts of the country where you could be living in a house you've purchased and still make "six figures."

rayiner 13y ago
No, what led to the ridiculousness of SF/NYC real estate is do-gooders talking about what we should find "acceptable" and what we should do to make things "acceptable." The do-gooders who complain every time you want to tear down low-rise development to build high-rises, the do-gooders who want to impose rent controls so old people can hang on to their apartments while younger people are priced out, etc. The housing market is like a balloon--you push on one end, and it inflates somewhere else. I'm hardly a free-market true believer. But this is a basic bit of micro-economics: supply and demand of housing. If demand is high, you'll minimize prices by allowing supply to grow to accommodate demand. If you don't allow supply to grow, prices will explode. You can't legislate away the mechanics of the housing market. Whenever I hear complaints about housing prices in San Francisco and how the single mothers working minimum wage jobs are getting priced out, I think of this article: http://seattletransitblog.com/2012/04/01/city-looks-to-detroit-baltimore-for-solutions-to-gentrification http://seattletransitblog.com/2012/04/01/city-looks-to-detro....
- dylangs1030 13y ago
  That article was great. Further reading: http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-274.html http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-274.html

rayiner 13y ago

No, what led to the ridiculousness of SF/NYC real estate is do-gooders talking about what we should find "acceptable" and what we should do to make things "acceptable." The do-gooders who complain every time you want to tear down low-rise development to build high-rises, the do-gooders who want to impose rent controls so old people can hang on to their apartments while younger people are priced out, etc. The housing market is like a balloon--you push on one end, and it inflates somewhere else. I'm hardly a free-market true believer. But this is a basic bit of micro-economics: supply and demand of housing. If demand is high, you'll minimize prices by allowing supply to grow to accommodate demand. If you don't allow supply to grow, prices will explode. You can't legislate away the mechanics of the housing market. Whenever I hear complaints about housing prices in San Francisco and how the single mothers working minimum wage jobs are getting priced out, I think of this article: http://seattletransitblog.com/2012/04/01/city-looks-to-detroit-baltimore-for-solutions-to-gentrification http://seattletransitblog.com/2012/04/01/city-looks-to-detro....

dylangs1030 13y ago
That article was great. Further reading: http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-274.html http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-274.html