Commentary

Thanks for showing the obvious

Local governments all over the country are worked up about affordable housing shortages. Ordinary working folk just can’t afford homes in many of our urban areas. And it is the fault of the market, which is somehow failing to provide enough low priced housing. But wait, these same governments have mostly imposed restrictions on new development. Helllooooo, McFly! Anybody home? It’s an obscure but true fact that restricting the supply of housing, um, restricts the supply. A new study by the Public Policy Institute of California does a nice job of reconfirming common sense, with an empirical looks at the much ballyhoo’d housing shortage in California. Whadyaknow, they find that there is not housing shortage statewide, only local shortages in the major urban areas and that “restrictive land use policies in those regions exacerbate the shortages.”