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Yoni Appelbaum @yappelbaum.bsky.social

"If the U.S. housing stock had expanded at the same rate from 2000-2020 as it did from 1980-2000, there would be 15 million more housing units." From this very good NBER paper by Ed Glaeser and Joseph Gyourko. www.nber.org/system/files...

jun 9, 2025, 1:46 pm • 28 9

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Scott Christy @scott-christy.bsky.social

Your link is no good. And this issue is too complex to simply blame on zoning regulations.

jun 9, 2025, 1:55 pm • 2 0 • view
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Yoni Appelbaum @yappelbaum.bsky.social

You didn't read the study, AND you're confident it's wrong? www.nber.org/papers/w33876

jun 9, 2025, 3:40 pm • 0 0 • view
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Scott Christy @scott-christy.bsky.social

Not at all, when I tried to use the link the page wasn't found. But examining the sprawl currently taking place where I live, I don't think the problem is regulatory - the issue is cost. Not the cost of development, but the purchase cost that excludes potential homebuyers.

jun 9, 2025, 7:22 pm • 0 0 • view
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Scott Christy @scott-christy.bsky.social

Why develop property when labor and materials are so expensive that no one can afford to buy?

jun 9, 2025, 7:23 pm • 1 0 • view
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Yoni Appelbaum @yappelbaum.bsky.social

I agree that the issue is cost. But the paper takes pains to quantify the roles of materials, labor, and regulation—and finds it's mostly the last.

jun 9, 2025, 7:24 pm • 1 0 • view
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Yoni Appelbaum @yappelbaum.bsky.social

This is hugely underplayed in the housing discourse. We're not running out of land for suburban starter homes. What's changed—and it really has changed!—is that in the last states where it was still possible to build them, the regulatory landscape has choked off development.

jun 9, 2025, 1:49 pm • 9 0 • view
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Yoni Appelbaum @yappelbaum.bsky.social

I know I'm a broken record on this, but the inability to move toward opportunity is a profound shift in American life, it's taken place within our lifetimes, and it's *rapidly getting worse.* www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/700580...

jun 9, 2025, 1:55 pm • 11 2 • view
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Dale Baker @dalbak.bsky.social

Is there a formula to estimate transportation and other civic infrastructure costs that go with communities for 15 million more houses? Or is it based on the potential property taxes from new homes? Seems like a mindboggling number. Not to mention the environmental impact of sprawl and land use.

jun 9, 2025, 4:21 pm • 1 0 • view
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CripesAmighty @cripesamighty.bsky.social

What's even more underplayed is the inflationary effect of artificial demand driven by mass speculation by private equity and other corporate players. Until this essential market distortion is dealt with, all the hubbub about bureaucracy is of limited value. www.thesling.org/are-hedge-fu...

jun 9, 2025, 2:11 pm • 0 0 • view