One common argument against all forms of infill development runs something like this: "In dense, urban areas land prices are always high, so housing prices will never be affordable absent government subsidy or extremely low demand. Furthermore, laws that allow new housing will make land prices even … [Read more...]
Response to “Steelmanning the NIMBYs”
Scott Alexander, a West Coast blogger, has written a post that has received a lot of buzz, called "Steelmanning the NIMBYs"; apparently, "steelmanning" is the opposite of "straw manning"; that is, it involves making the best possible case for an argument you don't really support. There have been … [Read more...]
The Foreign Buyers Are Taking Over (Not!)
A headline in the Boston Globe screams: "Boston's new luxury towers appear to house few local residents." The headline is based on a report by the leftist Institute for Policy Studies, which claims that in twelve Boston condo buildings, "64 percent do not claim a residential exemption, a clear … [Read more...]
No, this study does NOT support refusal to build housing
A recent headline in the Forbes blog screams: "Additional Housing Won't Make City More Affordable, Says Fed Study." This blog post cites a Federal Reserve Study showing that adding 5 percent more housing in the most desirable urban neighborhoods would lower rents by only 0.5 percent.But if you … [Read more...]
Two cheers for subsidized housing
A pure libertarian might argue that in an ideal world, there'd be no need for government-subsidized housing for low- and moderate-income households. Nevertheless, it seems to me that in the world we actually live in, even people generally opposed to the welfare state should favor more such … [Read more...]
does gentrification cause eviction?
I found an interesting new website: EvictionLab. This website contains eviction data by city for a large number of American communities.One might think that gentrifying cities and/or high cost cities have more evictions. But interestingly, low-cost, poor cities tend to have more evictions. … [Read more...]
Morton’s Fork and land use issues
I recently discovered a new logical fallacy: the "Morton's Fork" fallacy. This argument is one in which contradictory observations lead to the same conclusion. For example, if I argue that new housing near public transit is bad because it (1) spurs gentrification by bringing rich people into the … [Read more...]
The “Old People Need Cars” Argument- Myth or Fact?
The needs of the aged are often a political football in disputes over transportation policy. On the one hand, defenders of low-cost parking and other car-oriented policies argue that older people all need cars because they can’t be bothered to walk. On the other hand, smart growth types argue that … [Read more...]