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A comment on Blame Zoning, Not Tech, for San Francisco's Housing Crisis. Parent comment

Re:Blame Zoning, Not Tech, for San Francisco's Housing Crisis by mjmahone17 on Friday March 11, 2016 @09:56PM (#11271142)
New York from 1910s-1930s. Manhattan had more people living on it in 1920 than it does right now. During that time there was a ton of construction: prices went from $10/sq ft to $15/sq ft. Then with the market crash, demand for the overbuilt city real estate went down, leading to costs more in the range of $5/sq ft: http://www.millersamuel.com/change-is-constant-100-years-of-...

No, housing prices do not necessarily immediately sink. Developers will only build when they believe they can turn a profit. But you can overbuild during boom times and allow housing prices to correct when demand diminishes.

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Re:Blame Zoning, Not Tech, for San Francisco's Housing Crisis by timr on Friday March 11, 2016 @10:26PM (#11271251)
LOL. I was waiting for someone to confuse an economic crash as an answer to my question. You get a prize for suggesting that the actual Great Depression is an example. Well done!

Obviously, with perfect foresight, few intelligent developers would choose to begin a construction project just before a major economic retraction. But if your suggestion is that we should build now, then wait for economic armageddon to really adjust prices downward, then I guess I can't argue.

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