Hacker News Reader

Never mind the small towns. Houston has no zoning laws at all, yet:

https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/housing/2023/07/...

Houston has covenants which basically pick up the role of zoning laws. Famously they have massive parking minimums which prevents densifying.

IIRC Houston does not have zoning in direct sense of the word, but has a set of regulations and restrictions (e.g. on height, setbacks, parking minimums, lot sizes, etc.) that still drastically limits options for buildings.

Some/much of this may be just inflation and the devaluing of the dollar.

Sigh, it is always supply and demand. If demand is higher than supply, prices rise.

It is a universal law of economics that people pretend doesn't apply to housing.

In these towns, do you have evidence demand is stable and yet prices rise?

https://scott-wiener.medium.com/yes-supply-demand-apply-to-h...

Adam Smith would disagree.

Thanks for posting relevant data. I have changed my stance entirely.

I would expect that someone discussing this topic would be familiar with the various things Adam Smith and others have said about collusion to increase prices and related topics.