Comment by cyberax
3 days ago
It might help in the long term, as it can force cities to stop densifying. And as we all know by now, densification is the leading cause of unaffordability. The US has more houses than households, but people are forced by economic forces to move into denser and denser areas.
But short-term it'll hurt availability. One of the most common ways to enshittify cities is buying an SFH, demolishing it, and plopping a 3-4 apartment complex in its place.
This sounds backwards? Density means more units available, which should lower costs. Supply and demand. Rentals in a dense complex are cheaper than standalone rentals or duplexes, townhomes are cheaper than SFH, etc.
I don’t think cities should force density, but there’s no reason to go the other way either as long as growth is managed properly in terms of traffic, transit, and infrastructure.
i can see what they mean. Another way to think about it is like how adding a lane to a highway doesn't decrease traffic it increases it. There's no shortage of demand in densely populated areas otherwise they wouldn't be densely populated. Adding more units will be met with more demand like adding a lane to a highway is met with more cars on that highway. Fix it by making the area less dense and prices will drop like how the way to fix a busy highway is to decrease the cars on it and traffic will lighten up.
True, but typically this also means fewer jobs, local economic contraction, and eventually neighborhoods full of decaying empty properties as in Detroit. They did achieve lower density, as many abandoned homes were forcibly demolished. Housing is cheaper now too.
It seems much more realistic to freeze growth than reverse it. Even then, growth in surrounding areas or other factors can quickly make the area more desirable and expensive as in SF.
> This sounds backwards?
Nope. The ONLY way to get cheaper housing is by reducing the city population.
> Supply and demand.
Sigh. No. You assume that the demand is fixed. It's not. By building new housing, you _increase_ the demand. And always faster than you can satisfy it.
I just love this example:
Forbes 2016 - "Tokyo's Affordable Housing Strategy: Build, Build, Build", "The Great Urban Myth: 'Cities Can't Build Their Way To Affordable Housing'"
Reuters 2023 - "Surging Tokyo property prices squeeze out young professionals",
Japandaily 2025: "Housing Crisis: Families Struggle to Buy Homes in Tokyo" ( https://japandaily.jp/housing-crisis-families-struggle-to-bu... )
> Rentals in a dense complex are cheaper than standalone rentals or duplexes, townhomes are cheaper than SFH, etc.
Try to find a city where dense housing made it cheaper.
> Try to find a city where dense housing made it cheaper.
Are there cities where replacing denser housing with single-family homes made housing cheaper?
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Well technically that’s true, in the same sense that the only way to roll back inflation is demand destruction (and an extended recession or depression).
The problem with this is that you can’t forcibly reduce population. Halting growth in one area just displaces it. This can be a good trade if the area into which growth is displaced is underdeveloped with few other potential uses. But it can also create Atlanta or Houston style sprawl, or destroy natural areas that would be better to preserve.
Japan is an unusual example because most job opportunities are in a handful of areas. You can get impossibly cheap properties in the countryside but there are few jobs or young people. Properties in the city keep getting more expensive because of demand and because building codes are constantly evolving to keep up with new developments in earthquake protection. There are older urban properties available for cheap outside of trendy areas, but the cost of renovation is often too high to be worth it. There’s also a cultural stigma around older properties.
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> And as we all know by now, densification is the leading cause of unaffordability.
This is the first time I see this bold claim, what evidence do you have to prove it?
It's a simple observation. No large city in the US or Europe reduced the housing prices by increasing density. I gave an example of Tokyo in the other comment in this thread as an absolutely illustrative case.
The only price decreases happened only during the 2008 crisis and during the pandemic lockdowns, due to local population decreasing.