One big problem with this is that people vote their incentives. If you're a homeowner in San Francisco, are you really going to vote to halve the price of your home and immediately put your mortgage underwater?
People voting themselves higher house prices through using local zoning laws to create housing shortages is a national crisis. We need something pretty dramatic, like congress using the interstate commerce clause to ensure the free movement of labor via banning states and local municipalities from enacting their own zoning. Or a national land-value tax.
Could not agree with this more. I live in SF and the difficulty in building new housing is so outrageous. To make the housing prices in SF lower, supply must increase. While it makes sense for voters in a locality to have control/say in the environment around them, the ability of homeowners to control land they do not own and prevent new construction and shift the burden to other districts and public transportation is extremely flawed.
That is the fear, yes, but housing prices do not jump so quickly. They really are not likely to drop, as, perhaps, climb much more slowly.
It seems we have achieved a self-reinforcing civic virtue "anti-pattern", where middle class anxiety about high housing prices ends up squeezing the future housing supply. In other words, the negative feedback via anxiety caused by high demand may be greater than the usual positive correcting effect we expect from the "invisible hand", to add supply in the face of high demand.
IMHO it is a matter of homeowners acting on incomplete information. Sure, your house price going up seems nice, but it is only a significant benefit if you sell and move elsewhere for your retirement days. Those who actually like where they live and want to set roots have the practical problem of how affordable the place they live is now and when they retire. That is a death by a thousand cuts.
Regarding the future, I do hope to make the world a better place through my job. But in the practical world of the now, we need mechanics, teachers, grocers, plumbers, nurses, handymen, construction workers/contractors, waiters, etc. etc. or the SF Bay becomes an expensive hellhole.
Having enough people around who keep the community livable requires more affordable housing.
People voting themselves higher house prices through using local zoning laws to create housing shortages is a national crisis. We need something pretty dramatic, like congress using the interstate commerce clause to ensure the free movement of labor via banning states and local municipalities from enacting their own zoning. Or a national land-value tax.