Hacker News Reader

As a rule of thumb everyone who's born poor and ends up rich does it in real estate. That's not quite the same as saying everyone who invests in real estate ends up rich but it's a starting point.

View on HN

Something a lot of real estate people seem to forget is that detached housing isn't the only kind of housing unit and there are plenty of countries where people are very happy with high density structures.

I'm not saying we have a housing bubble but I wouldn't bet against it.

I agree with this on premise. But the US in particular (though Australia and Canada both share quite heavily in this), makes is practically illegal to build non-detached housing, in 99% of the country, once you included zoning requirements, parking minimums, set back requirements, community review boards, bans on multi-unit housing on a plot (so that even a duplex, triplex, etc are illegal even if they otherwise fit with zoning requirements).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com