Quirky_Butterfly_946 t1_j6iu616 wrote on January 30, 2023 at 5:21 PM

Anyone who thinks more building will lower housing costs are the mirror image to those who believe Trickle Dow Economics will benefit the middle class/poor.

giritrobbins t1_j6iv71u wrote on January 30, 2023 at 5:27 PM

It's been studied and shown to be the case.

The issue is the built up demand is so significant it will take ages to stabilize.

orangehorton t1_j6iwj01 wrote on January 30, 2023 at 5:36 PM

This is literally economics 101. Increase in supply leads to lower prices

BlaineTog t1_j6j0tip wrote on January 30, 2023 at 6:02 PM

Demand currently outstrips supply. As long as that continues to be the case, the housing crisis cannot be solved.

That said, you're correct that this isn't the only change that needs to be made. If you increase supply without raising taxes on homes past your primary resistance, you just encourage rental companies and investment portfolios to gobble up the new units so they can control prices and keep people renting. Building more houses and apartment buildings is a necessary step, but it's one part of a system of related changes that we need.

johndburger t1_j6j3k4y wrote on January 30, 2023 at 6:19 PM

Mirror image meaning they’re correct? It’s just common sense that building more supply reduces prices, and it’s been shown to be empirically true in dozens of studies.

https://www.theurbanist.org/2021/06/02/new-round-of-studies-underscore-benefits-of-building-more-housing/

IntelligentCicada363 t1_j6ixj6h wrote on January 30, 2023 at 5:42 PM

As opposed to what? telling those people to move or live 2 hours from their work?

WinsingtonIII t1_j6j7uq8 wrote on January 30, 2023 at 6:46 PM

This isn't the same principle as trickle down at all.

It's literally just "if there's more housing, it's easier to get". Which is basic common sense. Luxury buildings can't charge as much if there are too many of them, which means that the smaller landlords have to drop prices too since there is more competition for renters.

mshelikoff t1_j6kebk2 wrote on January 30, 2023 at 11:12 PM

You're right because "increase by less" is not the same as "lower." In most situations, building more housing will cause housing costs to increase by less than they would without building more housing. It would take so much new housing to sufficiently flood the market and lower housing costs that no politician would discuss such a dramatic change.

Redditors who don't pay close attention to words think you're wrong because ideology matters more than plain text in the US in the 2020s. It's a shame that so many people feel words first and think about their actual meaning later, if at all.