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Profiling the "Abundance" housing bottleneck with real data
9 days ago
- The article discusses 'chosen scarcity' or 'unaddressed technical debt' as a key barrier to societal progress, using housing as a primary example.
- Data shows Austin, which streamlined regulations, permits 8 times more housing per capita than San Francisco, illustrating the impact of reducing 'valves' or bottlenecks.
- Vienna's housing market contrasts with London's; despite similar building rates, Vienna's rents are much lower due to a large public/nonprofit housing sector, not just regulatory efficiency.
- The author emphasizes profiling and validating claims with rough data checks before accepting them, highlighting the importance of empirical verification over compelling narratives.
The American suburbs are better than you think
8 days ago
- The author, who prefers dense urban living, acknowledges that American suburbs have advantages that appeal to many people.
- Suburbs do not necessarily force long commutes; Americans have relatively short commutes due to polycentric urban layouts and faster car travel compared to public transit.
- Research indicates suburbs are not lonelier than cities; social connections often form through repeated interactions with known people, facilitated by larger homes and cars.
- Millennials and families are increasingly moving to suburbs, partly due to high urban rents but also because suburbs offer better conditions for raising children, such as more space and convenience.
- Urbanists should not frame cities versus suburbs as a zero-sum conflict; instead, they should advocate for both dense urban cores and improved suburban designs to cater to diverse lifestyle preferences.
New US homeownership measure puts people first
6 hours ago
- The commonly cited U.S. homeownership rate of 65% is actually the owner-occupancy rate, which measures housing units occupied by owners, not individuals.
- A new measure, the Homeowners-to-Population Ratio (HPOP), calculates the share of adults who own their home, yielding a rate of 53% for the U.S.
- HPOP accounts for all adults, including those living in group quarters (e.g., dorms, nursing homes) and co-residents who are not owners, providing a more accurate picture.
- Using HPOP, homeownership among adults under 35 is 22% compared to 37% under the owner-occupancy rate, highlighting how young adults are often misrepresented.
- HPOP reveals different trends over time: young adult homeownership fell from 2006 to 2015 then rose, while older adults (70+) saw a steady increase of 5 percentage points.
- At the state level, every state has a lower HPOP than owner-occupancy rate, with larger gaps in high-cost states like Hawaii (18.9 percentage points) and smaller gaps in affordable states like North Dakota (3.9 points).
- HPOP better reflects the relationship between housing costs and homeownership, as higher costs encourage shared living and widen the gap between the two measures.
- The HPOP measure is more suitable for policy discussions, such as land use regulations and the long-term financial impacts on young adults living with homeowner parents.

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#housing policy

Profiling the "Abundance" housing bottleneck with real data

The American suburbs are better than you think

New US homeownership measure puts people first