Post

If people were voting with their feet prices would go down.

What really sucks is saying "COVID lead to higher housing prices" in NYC sounds absurd on its face. But lockdown/working from home --> smaller household sizes --> more demand for limited housing --> higher prices.

Negligible increase in NY. Has not fully recovered from high in 2020. Meanwhile, TX saw a 19% population increase between 2010 and 2022. Immigration, legal and illegal, higher birth rate and in migration from other states. We shall see if this continues.

For that to not be voting with their feet, housing prices would need to be excluded from the location specific bundle of benefits and costs, right?

For a lot of people it’s just that as nice as some of these places are, sometimes 4,000 sf for a family of 5 but not surfing is a better bundle than 1,500 sf and surfing occasionally. It’s not exactly a vote but it’s not exactly losing the game either.

My mom lives alone in an old house in MA with space for five bedrooms (where six of us once lived). But at least she doesn’t complain about new apartment buildings. 🤷‍♂️