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Why Americans Can't Afford to Live in Liberal Cities
The Atlantic via Yahoo! Finance ^ | October 29, 2014 | Derek Thompson

Posted on 10/29/2014 9:31:04 AM PDT by Pan_Yan

...

But there's a second reason why San Francisco's problem is emblematic of a national story. Liberal cities seem to have the worst affordability crises, according to Trulia chief economist Jed Kolko.

In a recent article, Kolko divided the largest cities into 32 “red" metros where Romney got more votes than Obama in 2012 (e.g. Houston), 40 “light-blue” markets where Obama won by fewer than 20 points (e.g. Austin), and 28 “dark-blue” metros where Obama won by more than 20 points (e.g. LA, SF, NYC). Although all three housing groups faced similar declines in the recession and similar bounce-backs in the recovery, affordability remains a bigger problem in the bluest cities.

...

"Even after adjusting for differences of income, liberal markets tend to have higher income inequality and worse affordability,” Kolko said.

Kolko's theory isn't an outlier. There is a deep literature trying liberal residents to illiberal housing policies that create affordability crunches for the middle class. In 2010, UCLA economist Matthew Kahn published a study of California cities, which found that liberal metros issued fewer new housing permits. The correlation held over time: As California cities became more liberal, he said, they built fewer homes.

(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: housing; liberalcities; liberalism; realestate

1 posted on 10/29/2014 9:31:04 AM PDT by Pan_Yan
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To: Pan_Yan
Not to ignore the forest for the trees, but...there are no more "liberals" in American politics. They are all leftists. It is a distinction with a major difference.
2 posted on 10/29/2014 9:32:29 AM PDT by mrsmel (One Who Can See)
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To: Pan_Yan

My home town, Newton Mass, is 90+% left wing liberal. Average sale price is 919,000. Case closed.


3 posted on 10/29/2014 9:44:41 AM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (The only people in the world who fear Obama are American citizens. KILL THE BILL!)
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To: Pan_Yan

Your Money or Your Life

Your Money will be taken if you live in San Fran Sicko
Your life willbe taken if you live in Detroitistan

Both places are Libs strongholds...


4 posted on 10/29/2014 9:47:42 AM PDT by GraceG (Protect the Border from Illegal Aliens, Don't Protect Illegal Alien Boarders...)
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To: Pan_Yan
Seattle is a classic example of this trend in operation. We have:

1. Geographical constraints: Puget Sound, Lake Washington.

2. Liberal political establishment.

3. Severe limits on building in undeveloped areas.

Hence: High housing prices and increased construction of multi-family housing in already-developed areas to protect "our" (elitist) quality of life. Many older single-family neighborhoods are gradually (and not so gradually) morphing into multi-family and mixed apartment/retail areas. Thus traffic congestion has gone from bad to worse.

Yogi Berra might put it this way: "Nobody drives their car in Seattle any more, there's too much traffic."
5 posted on 10/29/2014 10:01:02 AM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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The rich democrats always price property sky high to keep dangerous minorities out of their neighborhoods. The poor dangerous minority democrats then cluster into poor areas safely away from the rich democrat overlords. If I could be a billionaire for a day, I would construct the world largest public housing projects right smack dab in the middle of places like Martha’s Vineyard


6 posted on 10/29/2014 10:01:28 AM PDT by dsrtsage (One half of all people have below average IQ. In the US the number is 54%i)
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To: stephenjohnbanker

Liberals pursue green environmental policies that limit construction and urban growth.

Liberals love rent control.

Liberals are clueless when it comes to the law of
supply and demand.


7 posted on 10/29/2014 10:06:28 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Steve_Seattle

Recent feature story in the Sunday Pittsburgh Trib:

“Urban Planners: Designing Cities for Hipsters That
You Don’t Want!”


8 posted on 10/29/2014 10:07:34 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Buckeye McFrog
Is this it?

The people designing your cities don’t care what you want. They’re planning for hipsters.

9 posted on 10/29/2014 10:12:36 AM PDT by Albion Wilde (It is better to offend a human being than to offend God.)
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To: Pan_Yan

In the midst of the Rust Belt, you have several cities that are booming with large state universities and/or large clinical hospitals: Iowa City, Ann Arbor, Madison, and Bloomington.

All three cities are overwhelmingly liberal, and are always ranked high on best places to live. But they receive BILLIONS more in state taxpayer money every year compared to other cities that are rotting former industrial giants (Fort Wayne, Flint, Racine, Waterloo).

Turn off the money flow to these liberal bastions, and they will rot faster than a dead carp in July.


10 posted on 10/29/2014 10:13:18 AM PDT by hawkeye101 (Conservatives won't win until they realize the tech industry and the internet is run by Marxists!!!!)
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To: Buckeye McFrog

Yep


11 posted on 10/29/2014 10:14:10 AM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (The only people in the world who fear Obama are American citizens. KILL THE BILL!)
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To: stephenjohnbanker

And the sad part of all of this is the proles have no clue and keep electing these oxygen stealing scum bunnies.


12 posted on 10/29/2014 10:22:46 AM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (Ebola: Satan's End Game for Humanity.)
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To: Buckeye McFrog

Goobermint can control prices. They don’t undertand they can not control costs.


13 posted on 10/29/2014 10:28:10 AM PDT by TurboZamboni (Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.-JFK)
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To: Buckeye McFrog

Liberals are not clueless so much as they oppose the Law of Supply and Demand. That law, if strictly observed, wold mender their affluence much less secure as they would have to actually produce goods and services to maintain it.


14 posted on 10/29/2014 10:31:56 AM PDT by arthurus
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To: alexander_busek
Remembering our conversation about microapartment developments in Seattle back in September; this article at the link goes deeper into how residential per-foot prices vary all over the nation; and how local political pressures affect housing costs. Interesting.
15 posted on 10/29/2014 10:55:07 AM PDT by Albion Wilde (It is better to offend a human being than to offend God.)
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To: Pan_Yan

I refuse to live in cities, regardless of where my commute is. The hive lifestyle engenders a hive mentality. No thanks.


16 posted on 10/29/2014 12:34:58 PM PDT by ScottinVA (We either destroy ISIS there... or fight them here. Pick one, America.)
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