If only the naysayers of development as a solution bothered to do research on how Asian cities (esp Tokyo) develop to get ideas to apply to cities in the west.
The US has about 10× as many immigrants as a share of population as Japan does, and the Bay Area is significantly higher than the US average share. Globalized demand is not an issue Tokyo (or most Asian cities) face. Globalized demand is what makes it impractical for SF to lower market clearing costs significantly by increasing supply. Also, Japan has a shrinking population, which means that not only isn't globalized demand a thing, the localized potential demand is shrinking, too. So, yeah, boosting supply works well on prices there, for reasons where it wouldn't in SF or the Bay Area more generally.
(And the US shutting down immigration to control the SF housing market, aside from being a radical national solution to an isolated local issue, would also undercut the economic engine driving progress in SF--and lots of other places in the country. While that also would contribute to lower housing prices, we've done "tank the economy to drop housing prices" back around 2008, and I don't think it was all that popular; the cure is worse than the disease.)
I wish the people pointing to Asian cities as a role model for SF bothered to do research on the differences between the situation facing SF and those facing the Asian cities at issue.
dragonwriter|6 years ago
(And the US shutting down immigration to control the SF housing market, aside from being a radical national solution to an isolated local issue, would also undercut the economic engine driving progress in SF--and lots of other places in the country. While that also would contribute to lower housing prices, we've done "tank the economy to drop housing prices" back around 2008, and I don't think it was all that popular; the cure is worse than the disease.)
I wish the people pointing to Asian cities as a role model for SF bothered to do research on the differences between the situation facing SF and those facing the Asian cities at issue.