Counting Votes
May. 26th, 2005 09:28 pmWhile
excessor is away for the evening to help count votes for the new ECR board, I'm just researching away.
If you're forced to rent in a high-cost area like SF or NYC, it turns out it can be demonstrated that most of the premium in house prices in areas like that is the result of extensive and capricious regulation of new construction. Typical projects take many more years, and result in far fewer units actually being built, than do projects in other areas. I'd suspected this was the case, but by doing a regression analysis on marginal price differences of houses with more or less land in various areas, this paper proves it.
Oh, and if you pay a really hefty sum for rent or can't even find a place without knowing someone, that's usually rent control at work. Economists are as certain of this as biologists are of evolution -- but the religious will still deny all the evidence as it suits them.
If you're forced to rent in a high-cost area like SF or NYC, it turns out it can be demonstrated that most of the premium in house prices in areas like that is the result of extensive and capricious regulation of new construction. Typical projects take many more years, and result in far fewer units actually being built, than do projects in other areas. I'd suspected this was the case, but by doing a regression analysis on marginal price differences of houses with more or less land in various areas, this paper proves it.
Oh, and if you pay a really hefty sum for rent or can't even find a place without knowing someone, that's usually rent control at work. Economists are as certain of this as biologists are of evolution -- but the religious will still deny all the evidence as it suits them.