
How to Fix San Francisco’s Housing Market - andrenth
https://fee.org/articles/how-to-fix-san-francisco-s-housing-market/
======
davidf18
The cause of high housing costs which is known to economists is market
inefficiencies or market failures called "rent-seeking" in this case the use
of politics through zoning density restrictions to create artificial scarcity
in the housing supply. Special interest groups (in this case landlords/land
owners) pass these zoning laws to make their land artificially inflated and
making tenants and new home buyers pay more than they would in an efficient
market for housing.

The fix is really simply: combat the special interests and pass laws
prohibiting the rent-seeking. Repeal zoning laws that are overly restrictive.

Harvard Economist Edward Glaeser discusses this in papers you can download. FT
Columnist with BS, MS Economics Tim Harford discusses this in his book, "The
Undercover Economist."

Not certain why people are proposing new solutions when the solution is
already known. Helps if people study economics.

~~~
old-gregg
And how will you know if changing zone laws works?

It helps to look at Hong Kong: similar to SF scarcity of land, excellent
public transport, high population density and skyscrapers everywhere, yet it's
even more expensive to rent than in San Francisco.

The way I see it: if living in San Francisco is 3 times "nicer" than living in
location X, so the rent is 3 times higher. Changing zoning laws does not
change the pricing, it simply changes _how many_ people will be living in SF,
but as long as it's "3 times nicer" than X, it will continue being 3x the
price.

~~~
senseless
I think you're mistaking SF and Hong Kong for being more similar than they
are.

Hong Kong has about 7.2 million people in about 107 mi² of developable
land[0]. In comparison, San Francisco has about 840,000 people in 47 mi² of
land.

Additionally, San Francisco is just one piece of its urban area. There is a
large amount of developed land outside of it that people can live in who can't
afford the city proper. Hong Kong is much more self-contained, geographically
and politically.

Furthermore, there is a vast amount of research showing that zoning laws hold
tremendous (and quite possibly primary) impact over prices. To start, you
might be interested in the book Zoning Rules! by William A. Fischel.

Excuse me for saying so, I can't help but think you made this comment with
virtually no knowledge around zoning and urban development in general, and I
don't want people to be misled.

[0]
[http://www.pland.gov.hk/pland_en/info_serv/statistic/landu.h...](http://www.pland.gov.hk/pland_en/info_serv/statistic/landu.html)

~~~
old-gregg
> Excuse me for saying so

No need to apologize, you're right: I am no expert. These kinds of responses
is why I come to and comment on HN, thanks for the link!

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ng12
That zoning map infuriates me. All these residential neighborhoods right along
the Muni rail zoned to be single-family houses. I used to take the N-Judah to
work downtown every day and the trains were at most half-full. The
infrastructure is there, just build something already.

~~~
zorpner
_I used to take the N-Judah to work downtown every day and the trains were at
most half-full._

How long ago? The N-Judah trains are packed like sardines inbound in the
morning and outbound in the evening. They've started running empty trains out
to Hillway because typically by UCSF the inbound trains are completely full.
More housing in the Sunset would absolutely require improved transit.

~~~
baddox
In 2011 I took the N every weekday from 30th to Montgomery around 9-9:30am and
back around 6-8pm and sardines are the perfect simile.

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DrScump

      A slightly more moderate proposal favors an 80% land tax to allow for some margin of error in assessment.
    

... which, of course, is unconstitutional (Prop 13).

~~~
nwah1
California is unique in this regard, and is paying the price for it.

I'm sure it must be nice for older landowners to see windfall profits thanks
to the productive activity of others, but surely there must be a better way of
helping people save up for retirement than to make the area completely
unaffordable for younger people.

~~~
beamatronic
This will change only when these older landowners lose political power

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johan_larson
Who are these FEE folks? What's their angle?

The author sounds like a very classical economist.

~~~
mikeyouse
> Who are these FEE folks? What's their angle?

One of dozens of 'free enterprise' think tanks sponsored by cash from the Koch
network.. I don't think they're wrong about fixing SF's housing costs (aside
from their solution being unconstitutional) but this sums up their ideology:

> _FEE has published or hosted lectures by some of the finest minds of the
> modern age, including Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Henry Hazlitt, Milton
> Friedman, James Buchanan, Vernon Smith, Israel Kirzner, Walter Williams,
> George Stigler, Frank Chodorov, John Chamberlain, F.A. “Baldy” Harper, and
> William F. Buckley, Jr., among many others._

[https://www.charleskochinstitute.org/professional-
education/...](https://www.charleskochinstitute.org/professional-
education/partner-organizations/)

------
mcbruiser1
building really tall buildings on a fault line seems like a great idea

~~~
flyingfences
The Japanese architects have figured out how to do exactly that. Japan
experiences earthquake after earthquake, but Japanese cities are full of
skyscrapers and I haven't heard of any of those having any catastrophic issues
of the sort that you seem to be implying.

