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Comment by cyberax | Hacker News Reader

SF has not built anything, but rents decreased much more than in MN: https://www.sfchronicle.com/realestate/article/sf-rent-price...

Rents right now are an unreliable indicator because they are heavily affected by the downtown blights that are spreading in many cities.

Sale prices are much more reliable, and Minneapolis prices (as expected) grew: https://www.redfin.com/city/10943/MN/Minneapolis/housing-mar...

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Zoning alone can only affect prices when there is an arbitrage opportunity to build something in location A that isn't possible in nearby location B. When entire cities upzone across the board like Minneapolis there is no arbitrage opportunity, so prices are not going up specifically because the zoning was changed. Prices are increasing because there is a chronic shortage of places to lives near economic opportunity and high demand to live somewhere you can make a living.

> Prices are increasing because there is a chronic shortage of places to lives near economic opportunity and high demand to live somewhere you can make a living.

Yes. And the solution is not to drive people into dense slums, but to make sure that jobs are available outside of city cores.

It will require concerted action, probably something like cap-and-trade for dense office space.

Agglomeration effects mean that any city that tries to split up offices away from the city cores would end up "losing" compared to cities which allow offices and industries to cluster together freely.

Yes. That's why the action has to be concerted.

It's exactly how we dealt with all other types of pollution, btw.

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