“Housing Roundup #7” by Zvi

Legalize housing. It is both a good slogan and also a good idea.

The struggle is real, ongoing and ever-present. Do not sleep on it. The Housing Theory of Everything applies broadly, even to the issue of AI. If we built enough housing that life vastly improved and people could envision a positive future, they would be far more inclined to think well about AI.

In Brief

What will AI do to housing? If we consider what the author here calls a ‘reasonably optimistic’ scenario and what I’d call a ‘maximally disappointingly useless’ scenario, all AI does is replace some amount of some forms of labor. Given current AI capabilities, it won’t replace construction, so some other sectors get cheaper, making housing relatively more expensive. Housing costs rise, the crisis gets more acute.

Chris Arnade says we live in a high-regulation low-trust society in America [...]

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Outline:

(00:28) In Brief

(04:01) Legalize Housing

(13:46) Regulatory Barriers

(16:08) Future Construction Expectations

(18:55) Rents

(20:20) Different Designs

(23:51) Landmarks

(24:40) History

(26:15) Public Opinion

(27:16) NIMBY Sightings

(30:34) Houses as Savings

(32:37) Union Dues

(37:20) Landlords

(37:41) Construction

(38:08) Rent

(38:27) Who are You?

(40:06) Good Money After Bad

(40:21) Commercial Real Estate

(42:12) San Francisco

(48:25) New York City

(51:45) Austin

(54:31) Kentucky House Bill 102

(59:25) Tokyo

(01:00:08) Vancouver

(01:01:26) Minneapolis

(01:02:50) Texas

(01:03:41) Florida

(01:06:37) Cities Build Housing, Rents Decline

(01:09:57) Los Angeles

(01:12:26) Argentina

(01:13:05) Other Places Do Things

(01:13:12) Rent Control

(01:17:27) Traffic and Transit

(01:25:47) The Lighter Side

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First published:
March 4th, 2024

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/m8ahbiumz8C9mnGnp/housing-roundup-7

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.