Housing

From the start, California’s “landmark” climate law recognized that because global warming is a planetary wide phenomena , the state could only have “far-reaching” effects by “encouraging other states, the federal government, and other countries to act.” To achieve this goal, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and leaders, charged with crafting climate policy, could have chosen to preserve the state’s quality of life – the “California Dream” – while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving climate resiliency.  read more »

Between 2000 and 2024, there has been substantial movement between the states — net domestic migration. The source of the data is the Census Bureau population estimates program  read more »

The United States is experiencing rapid growth in its older population, a triumphant result of long-term investments in health and medicine.  read more »

Back in September, I wrote a piece that highlighted a notable but underestimated accomplishment in Chicago’s housing market.  read more »

Last week CalMatters – which has become a prime go-to source for coverage of news, and especially politics, in California – published a story that can only be described as infuriating.  read more »

For the last two centuries, one of the most important demographic trends has been the movement of people from rural areas to the cities.  read more »

Kamala Harris has a plan to help America’s struggling home buyers by increasing the supply of houses. Her recently released 82-page policy book, “A New Way Forward for the Middle Class,” calls for clearing away the “regulatory burden” and “red tape” that constrains new-home construction.  read more »

Throughout the West, particularly the Anglosphere, housing costs are ravaging the middle class. Homeownership, long the key to social mobility, is on the decline  read more »

This paper, by property expert Ross Elliott, explores the reasons behind our current housing shortages and identifies a range of policy measures which have contributed to – rather than alleviated – the magnitude of the current housing ‘crisis.’  read more »

Just a quick note on an encouraging article by James Rodriguez of Business Insider. Rodriguez reports a significant reduction in house prices in Austin, Texas, due to building a large number of single-family homes and apartments. I was unable to discern whether the article dealt with the Austin market (the metropolitan area) or the city (which is a housing submarket). Nor could I tell if his insightful comparison to San Francisco was the housing market (metro) or the city submarket.  read more »