“Please God, give me one more oil boom. This time I promise not to piss it away.” It was a popular bumper sticker in Texas in the 1980s. It’s worth remembering as experts who’ve never built houses, and who’ve surely never borrowed the money necessary to build houses, tell us the solution to the […]
Housing, Like Oil, Is Not As Simple As Pundits Want It To Be Read More »
Jennifer Aniston is single. But as a 2015 write-up from here pointed out, Aniston’s status was a choice as opposed to a situation that she couldn’t escape. Realistically, millions and perhaps billions of men would have gladly changed Aniston’s status to “married.” And they still would. Aniston holding out for something better arguably explains the U.S.
Housing Is Affordable, There’s Just Too Many Jennifer Aniston’s Read More »
In his 2008 book The Ascent of Money, Niall Ferguson observed that the English speaking peoples are obsessed with housing, and that “No other fact of financial life has such a hold on the popular imagination.” By extension, Ferguson might agree that no other market good brings out the stupid within American pundits, economists, and politicians like
How Could It Be a “Crisis” That Americans Can’t Afford a House? Read More »
Do you remember the legislation that put incredibly affordable supercomputers in our pockets, or the federal decree that made Artificial Intelligence (AI) access as costless as an internet connection? That’s the point. Great advances in commerce are never an effect of legislation, and they’re certainly not a consequence of politicians scanning the marketplace, finding
Why Is Everyone So Sure That More “Housing Supply” Is the Solution? Read More »
“Our story wasn’t unusual. Because the median house was within our financial reach, members of my generation were able to begin homeownership early in our careers and parlay the increased value of our dwellings into larger homes for growing families.” That’s William Galston, a “token” left-wing columnist at the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page. Perhaps not
The Message Isn’t More Housing Supply, It’s Don’t Own a Home Read More »
“The U.S. must build, baby.” The latter is the subhead to a recent opinion piece published at the right-of-center Manhattan Institute. Supposedly the easy answer to housing affordability is “build baby, build.” On the left, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson are presently being lionized for promoting an “abundance” agenda of more homebuilding that will supposedly make
Nosebleed Housing Prices Aren’t Signaling What the Experts Think Read More »
Remember in 2008 when the experts were calling for nationwide housing destruction to allegedly save the U.S. economy from falling housing prices? It’s something to contemplate as experts like Ezra Klein ask in 2025 “How many more homes” we Americans supposedly need. What producers of smartphones, cars and bananas would give for Klein’s crystal ball… Briefly pivoting away
There’s No Housing Crisis, There Are Just Emotional Pundits Read More »
“We steadily began to realize the magnitude of the task ahead of us, not even in terms of financial resources, but just time and effort and coordination. The hour that we can save a day, it’s time that we can spend with the kids or to have a glass of wine together.” Those are
Millionaire Renters: Start of a Multi-Bracket Trend Read More »
