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by djoldman 36 days ago
A rare anti-Betteridge's law of headlines article.

Yes, there are laws that, if passed, would stop or slow or even reverse the increasing price of real estate. Would they pass? Hard to say and probably not quickly.

As has been repeated many times: it's in the financial interest of people who own property to increase their property's value by constraining supply via zoning/building codes, and they usually have a good amount of influence in the local politics that determine these rules.

The solve is fairly straightforward: allow absolute maximum density so long as it is built safely.

You'll get tall apartment buildings pretty quick. Then everyone can go to the schools and enjoy the low crime and fast fire response.

But that isn't allowed because incumbents don't want it.

There's not much new about this... it's the same story all over the US.

1 comments

> it's the same story all over the US.

At least some places are different:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47433058

No, it's not. Austin's population growth has been at _best_ stagnant. And I made a prediction that it had actually decreased.

We'll see once 2025 ACS data is released.