
The affordable housing crisis, explained - gamechangr
https://www.curbed.com/2019/5/15/18617763/affordable-housing-policy-rent-real-estate-apartment
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api
Everything here is right but one factor is not mentioned: the use of housing
as a pure investment vehicle and financial instrument. Cash buyers with no
interest but speculation (or sometimes money laundering) are a huge factor in
"hot" markets.

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closeparen
If the fundamentals aren't there, then prospective homebuyers can simply keep
renting and saving while they wait for the market to rationalize. You wouldn't
_want_ to be a long term buyer in a market that you believe is experiencing a
speculative bubble. The people locking you out of it are (perversely) doing
you a favor, by saving you from being one of their "greater fools."

I suspect that capping supply in the face of immense demand is what makes
urban housing such a great investment. If we allowed enough supply growth to
make urban housing markets underperform equity markets (while still rising!)
much of that capital would lose interest. You speculate on things that are
going up, after all.

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api
You just described how bubbles work. Real estate is still in a bubble, and
there are still fools.

