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Billy Cooney's avatar

Surprised to say I don't recall ever learning about the 1961 downzoning of NYC. I need to learn more about this.

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forumposter123@protonmail.com's avatar

It’s not just house prices. Taxes in blue states are way up. You’ll notice that most sunbelt states have 1.x% property taxes while most blue states have 2.x% (on higher house assessments). California kept property tax down but makes up for it with income and other taxes.

The truth is that most blue states and cities are run by their unions (especially the teachers union). Their tax base exists to fund those unions, and they squeeze them for all they are worth. NYC spends $36,000 a year per kid in k-12. That’s a racket. And it doesn’t even county the unfunded pensions most of these states have.

That’s why I don’t see the situation improving. These are one party states and the primaries of that one party are owned by the machine politics of the unions.

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Deborah Hammond's avatar

Perfect summary that housing availability is the number one issue to solve for across USA w lovely data analysis. Blue coastal cities are $&%*# by the ‘own goal’ actions.

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Werner Heisenberg's avatar

Price premiums exist for a reason. Even without regulation places on the coasts would STILL be expensive places to live, because industries agglomerate as does labor. Bay Area ever since the 1970’s has been expensive, and will continue to be due to the way the regional economy has developed.

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Dominik E's avatar

Good review, one point I think you miss here is that we see appreciation mostly in urban areas, due to the increasing demand for infrastructure that is lacking in rural communities. Since the financial crisis 2008 urban and rural home prices have drifted apart with urban prices now comfortably above pre crash levels. This is not an American phenomenon but a global one. The old democratic cities are full because of zoning laws because of low density living in enormous suburbs. The same will happen to cities in republican states their building practices are not better (car dependent suburbs) their are just not at the capacity yet.

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Radek's avatar

How do the numbers look if you adjust for median house size?

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Hunter Hughes's avatar

Housing affordability continues to erode as price-to-income ratios soar across states

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