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Bruce's avatar

Agree with your comments.

One area where we're not doing well and it's causing real pain is home/apt building. No one could credibly disagree with the observation that we have a real housing crisis. Yet that's exactly where the current economy is coming up most short. Home builder's can't build (because they can't sell) in volume. And apartment construction has fallen off a cliff owing to the doubling of debt costs combined with equity having run to the sidelines (I'm a large scale apartment developer.)

So just when we need a large supply boost, and the YIMBY movement is making real headway on the entitlements front, the factors required for a big housing supply increase have run into a head wall in the form of the current economy.

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Matt Lutz's avatar

I think this misses an important point, which is that while INFLATION has gone down, PRICES haven't. Now, I know: inflation going down doesn't mean prices go down. Prices going down would be DEFLATION, and that's bad. Yes yes yes. But most people don't get this. For most people, inflation means "My groceries cost 15% more than they did two years ago!" And groceries still cost 15% more than they did two years ago. So inflation hasn't gone away. Again, I'm not endorsing that thought process, I'm just saying it's very common.

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