> Demand is high because our financial laws allow criminals to launder money through housing
> too many NIMBY politicians that are against density increases
Now I'm sure you can argue that there's no real contradiction between these two statements, but I can't help but feel that these are one and the same problem, and that we need some idea beyond the supply-demand or nimby-yimby binaries. Do these concepts really model the reality well, or perhaps more importantly lead us towards the reality we want to see? Isn't this high-density housing also just another way for real estate people to speculate?
I think we have to start looking at this problem like we do healthcare: the markets are _the_ problem. Housing should be something more like a right.
> Do these concepts really model the reality well, or perhaps more importantly lead us towards the reality we want to see? Isn't this high-density housing also just another way for real estate people to speculate?
Thinking about it. China itself is a good example. A fifth of the entire housing stock are vacant concrete boxes despite China having the biggest construction boom in human history for 20 years in a row (Chinese construction industry builds one California worth of housing every 2-3 months.)
Rents are very low though, rent to buy ratios above 100 are not rare.
> too many NIMBY politicians that are against density increases
Now I'm sure you can argue that there's no real contradiction between these two statements, but I can't help but feel that these are one and the same problem, and that we need some idea beyond the supply-demand or nimby-yimby binaries. Do these concepts really model the reality well, or perhaps more importantly lead us towards the reality we want to see? Isn't this high-density housing also just another way for real estate people to speculate?
I think we have to start looking at this problem like we do healthcare: the markets are _the_ problem. Housing should be something more like a right.