Some people think the research showing planning restrictions have a large effect on housing prices is controversial. Among urban economists, it is not. Objections on twitter reflect simple misunderstandings that are not taken seriously in the research literature. A thread: 1/6

the same could be said for drinking alcohol, an addictive carcinogen that causes thousands of deaths every year, along with countless preventable injuries. I wonder if the government has ever tried making it illegal — perhaps that would fix the problem…

The odds of your child getting kidnapped are about 1 in a million. The odds of a person born in 2021 dying in a traffic crash are about 1 in 93. American parents act like these stats are reversed. They're paranoid about the rare kidnapping but naive about the common drive.

I have a simpler theory.

Interesting to see concerns being expressed around this. You are 200 times more likely to be killed by a car on a walk than in a sprinklered building. You are 1,100 times more likely being killed in a car related crash than in a sprinklered building.

Whole lot of nonsense and fear mongering about the safety of BC allowing single stair apartments. Reality is, single stair apartments are far safer in case of fire than single family homes. Read this thread on why (BC regs are very close to Seattle’s)

While there are arbitrary choices involved when estimating “demographic demand”, and housing is more than just demographics (incomes matter too, as do construction costs), this measure of doubling up is very predictive of rents. doodles.mountainmath.ca/posts/2024-08-…

New housing shouldn't be litigated on a site-by-site basis, and BC Housing projects shouldn't be decided based on a show of hands of local, comfortably housed residents. And they should *definitely* not go through a rezoning process. What a terrible, terrible process.

Fun fact: if you really support treatment for drug addiction, then you need to build supportive housing. Solving the housing crisis will make solving the addiction crisis much much easier.

I am forever amused at the immigrants complaining about other immigrants taking over