Ok, let's say we double supply.
All the houses are now either twice as high, or half as big, or maybe the trees were cut down and the bushes ripped out to make room. There's twice as many people & everything therein. Is it still the same nice neighborhood?
Things change, especially in the US.
"The immaculate conception theory of your neighborhood’s origins": http://cityobservatory.org/the-immaculate-conception-theory-...
And: if prices are going up that much, and you really want out, you can sell and move, to, say, Lakeview, Oregon.
But we should be wholly unsympathetic to that view. It's a reasonable thing to wish for, but it's not a reasonable demand to give in to.
This is a brilliant sentiment, and a brilliant quote. It applies in so many conversations...
I just wanted to express my appreciation (and my intention of stealing this quote many times in the future!).
Among many issues, the fundamental attractiveness of a particular neighborhood may be tied to low population density.
In which case ripping down the neighborhood and rebuilding makes neither resident Person A nor prospective buyer Person B happy.
Sooner or later, the US must confront the fact that not everyone can live in a single story ranch house with a big yard in an extremely desirable part of the country, without causing massive sprawl (LA).
As long as there is high demand, you can either build more or expect higher prices and more sprawl. I get that people don't like those choices, but that's what's on the table.
So you're kicking the marginal (in the economic sense) people out into marginal places where they have less access to what made the original area such a great place to have a job.
Rent control could do that for rent, but has its own problems. As for owners, how do you tell someone they aren't allowed to sell their house for what someone else is willing to pay them?
Sounds like it would work, until you realize most of the buildings are owned by landlords who want to cash in and get as much money as they can with the property they've invested in. They don't particularly care who is living in the property, just that somebody is there and that they're getting paid.
