re: The Atlantic: the great affordability crisis breaking America

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I suppose it could be problematic for the actual residents of NOLA

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I guess maybe part of the issue here is that I'm just not a remotely nostalgic person. I don't see things today and feel like they need to be that way 20 years from now.

Things change and people move. That's part of life. I'm reminded of a line from a Neil diamond song.

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L.A.'s fine, the sun shines most the time
And the feeling is "lay back"
Palm trees grow and rents are low

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He wrote that in 1971. That's not really that long ago.

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There will always be more culture with more people though

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That depends on what you consider “culture”. Even if you think that, you have to acknowledge that not all of this culture you’re getting will be good.

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You could go buy the strict dictionary definitions and it would be pretty evident that more people will likely amount to more culture

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I suspect it’s more correct to say that you’ll get a very different culture; that’s not the same as “more”, which you seem to be using as an adjective for “better”. But if you’re not going to bother to define what you’re talking about I don’t suppose you really want to make a point.

See, I find this interesting, I ask what is driving demand, and I get these two responses:

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people want to live there for a variety of reasons.

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What does it matter? There are a multitude of reasons

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I've noticed this trend since the Supply Side Economics of the Reagan era. There is so much emphasis put on supply and marketing, that it's almost irrelevant as to what is driving actual demand. The emphasis seems to now be on, "If you build it, they will come" and simply trying to convince people to demand products that producers can make larger margins on. There are still some consumers out there, however, who aren't interested in being talked into buying something they don't want.

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if they can't afford to live there they aren't part of the demand that's driving prices

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And that's the false conclusion that results.

Obviously, if there is more demand than supply, eventually producers will figure out how to increase supply. One way to do that is to examine what is driving the demand and perhaps provide alternate supplies for that demand. If you don't care what's driving it, you're not going to profit from meeting the demand.

But the humorous part to me is the vast majority of posters OTB that ridicule these particular cities as insanely liberal, and at the same time admit to the insane demand for them - but still aren't interested in what is driving the demand.

One thing that strikes me about what's driving the demand is the opportunity to build vast wealth in these cities. Yet to listen to posters on the board, they can't seem to imagine how anyone could build wealth in a liberal city that has 'enormous' tax burdens. The problem comes in, though, when the people who demand to locate in these cities price out the support staff they need to provide services.

Perhaps if other cities could figure out what's driving demand to these cities, they could supply that demand in their own cities. In other words, cities are missing out on satisfying the demand from those who can't afford the prices - seemingly because they're not interested in figuring out what's driving the demand in the first place. Some cities are actually doing just this: Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Austin, Phoenix, San Antonio...

Ultimately the problem is that the margins on affordable housing aren't as large as on premium housing.

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Obviously, if there is more demand than supply, eventually producers will figure out how to increase supply

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but if they cannot or are prevented from doing so prices will rise

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But the humorous part to me is the vast majority of posters OTB that ridicule these particular cities as insanely liberal, and at the same time admit to the insane demand for them

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I'm not actually ridiculing them in this case except for the fact that their governments exacerbate the problem that already would exist even without them

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Telecommuting will change that with a quickness over the next 50 years

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I swear if it takes 50 years I'll stab someone. Should happen in the next 10

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But the humorous part to me is the vast majority of posters OTB that ridicule these particular cities as insanely liberal, and at the same time admit to the insane demand for them - but still aren't interested in what is driving the demand.

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This is simple. Leftism thrives on herd mentality.

well maybe not try to pack millions of people in areas that have had a set number of houses for over a hundred years.

The common denominator is rent control and price manipulating. In these cities’ attempts to artificially lower rent rates, they’ve provided a false model of supply and demand. Rich people buy up all of the cheap housing, and then there’s nothing left but condos and high rises.