Reply to Why is "growth" good? I'd like fewer people in the area

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Increasing density has become this fetish on the left. Apparently it solves everything.  Someone should go to NYC and see how it’s working for them.[/quote]

Seriously.

This is all we hear about in MoCo.  More density is the answer.  Such BS.

Will housing costs really go down?  Hasn't been the case in NYC.  [/quote]

Imagine you built a million new condo units in Manhattan. Would that make housing there affordable? Or at least cheaper than it is now?

[b]It would put downward pressure on prices because there would be more supply. But if prices actually went down compared to what they would have been otherwise, then demand would go up too [/b](this is the part of the equation that upzoning people conveniently ignore). All the people in the outer boroughs and in New Jersey who have terrible commutes would snap them up, as would people currently living in Austin or Iowa or Maine who want to live in NYC but don't because they couldn't previously afford it. That would drive housing prices back up. The result would be no change in housing prices, and an even more crowded Manhattan.

The issue here isn't supply -- it's desirability. Places where everyone wants to live are always going to be expensive.

Ironically, perhaps given the rhetoric, it's the least densely populated places in this country that are the cheapest places to live -- you can buy a house in Des Moines for $150,000 -- and the most densely populated areas are the most expensive. Because the issue is desirability. [/quote]

Er common econ 101 error.

Demand doesn't go up because you build more units and prices go down.

The quantity demanded goes up (the demand curve is the curve of quantity demanded at each price point).

You are not shifting the demand curve, you are moving along the demand curve.

With a normal downward sloping demand curve the equilibrium price will decrease.  HOW MUCH will depend on the  "elasticity of demand"

Yes if demand is very elastic - if a small reduction in price means a large increase in quantity demanded - then the decrease in price will be very minimal.  If its inelastic than the reduction will be large.

Demand elasticity for a particular neighborhood is likely quite large.  Build more units on the UES, and you draw people from the UWS, Brooklyn, etc.

Demand for NYC period is likely much less elastic. Lots of people living in the suburbs of NYC do not WANT to live in the City, or work in the suburbs.  Of course to the extent people DO move from the suburbs of NYC to  Manhattan, that will lower prices in the suburbs.

Demand for greater NYC like even less elastic.

Someone in Iowa does not have a JOB in NYC.    They are simply not that interchangeable.

And yes, low density areas are sometimes expensive.   Boulder Colo, for example.  High density areas not always.

Yes, of course desirability matters.   Thats just saying demand matters AS WELL AS SUPPLY.

But added supply can certainly matter. Even in dense desirable places

https://www.vox.com/2016/8/8/12390048/san-francisco-housing-costs-tokyo

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