Comment by graeme
5 days ago
>But, the convention in the US is that people see their houses as a form of savings. Realistically, we should account for that.
Why? If it makes society as a whole much poorer.
The convention is fairly recent and the cause of enormous problems.
Because policies they cause huge financial harm to normal people become unpopular, and don’t spread as a result. And also because it is bad for society if we modify the rules in ways that makes it harder to plan ahead.
Realistically basically no one is aware of the details of zoning policy or the mechanics.
Are there pitchforks in Denver or Austin? Are angry homeowners overthrowing governments and blocking homebuilding?
People seem to complain that housing costs too much. The straightforward bet is that lower prices would be popular.
For example, re Texas, 9 out of 10 say housing prices are too high: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/08/08/texas-housing-afford...
> Are angry homeowners overthrowing governments and blocking homebuilding?
Yes. Go to city council meetings when new housing developments are being proposed. See the throngs of people that'll show up demanding that new development doesn't get built. See the angry people shouting about how allowing ADUs will just destroy their way of life.
The amount of vitrol I saw about the Plano Tomorrow plan against past mayor LaRosiliere was astounding, people fighting tooth and nail to prevent denser housing from being approved. So many people saying things like the "wrong kind of people" would be moving in and allowing more density would make the city unsafe.
https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/plano-repeals-compre...
2 replies →
> Are angry homeowners overthrowing governments and blocking homebuilding?
No, they're already in the government, have been for decades, and they're the ones responsible for anti-development policy.
> For example, re Texas, 9 out of 10 say housing prices are too high
Cute punchy polls like that make for nice sound bits, but don't tell the whole story. I'm sure if you followed that up with, "If the government were to enact new housing development property that would reduce the value of your home by 20% over the next 10 years, would you support it?", I guarantee you that 9 out of 10 (homeowners) would absolutely not.
It doesn't really matter why; what matters is that they do see things that way.
And I agree with you, it's a bad convention, and it causes tons of problems, and it's the result of recent decades of bad mortgage/housing/zoning policy. But we can't just wipe it away and pretend it was never there, and let the chips fall where they may. That's just heartless, and, well -- you talk about making society poorer -- that will make society much, much poorer, nearly overnight.
No it won't. If society builds more dwellings society is richer. Wealth is the actual physical production of goods and services.
We wouldn't get richer if we blew up car factories to protect the market value of existing cars. The market value of existing cars WOULD skyrocket if we destroyed all new car production, but that would be society getting poorer, not richer, as we would have fewer cars.