That's not quite true. Most people don't want to live directly in the urban core (though I do), and the supply of housing in both the urban core and inner-ring suburbs is artificially restricted. Hence all the talk of "missing middle" housing (ie: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/9/24/17896482/b...).
The trend is that many professional people want to live in the urban core, because they are delaying having kids mostly.
Missing middle housing is all about the disruption of the boom/bust cycle of housing and long time erosion of middle class earnings, plus a decreased supply of tradespeople that has ballooned up skilled and semi-skilled labor. We have a glut of mediocre college educated people and a shortage of people who do things -- my brother in law is an electrician, his billing rate is up to $150/hr, and he has a 6 week backlog of work.
It's not economical to build a house anymore like it was in the mid-90s -- even if you own the land. We're being flooded with medium density, carve-out rental housing developments because you need that scale to make money, mostly through trading of tax expenses.
Those developments suck because they don't integrate with the street grid, waste space and are universally low quality buildings. When you pass the 15-year mark and interest/tax write downs go away, they will naturally turn into low-income as the landlords profitability melts away. Around that point, these developments flip over to a succession of shittier operators.
Missing middle housing is all about the disruption of the boom/bust cycle of housing and long time erosion of middle class earnings, plus a decreased supply of tradespeople that has ballooned up skilled and semi-skilled labor. We have a glut of mediocre college educated people and a shortage of people who do things -- my brother in law is an electrician, his billing rate is up to $150/hr, and he has a 6 week backlog of work.
It's not economical to build a house anymore like it was in the mid-90s -- even if you own the land. We're being flooded with medium density, carve-out rental housing developments because you need that scale to make money, mostly through trading of tax expenses.
Those developments suck because they don't integrate with the street grid, waste space and are universally low quality buildings. When you pass the 15-year mark and interest/tax write downs go away, they will naturally turn into low-income as the landlords profitability melts away. Around that point, these developments flip over to a succession of shittier operators.