Pay no attention to Zumper’s claims about rent trends Zumper claims rents for one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments are moving in opposite directions in about a fifth of all markets There’s a lot of hyperventilation in the media about falling rents in different places in the US. It’s certainly likely that in the midst of the […]
Is it random, or is it Zumper? Read More »
This week, we’re running a three-part series on the flawed way that we measure housing affordability. This post looks at exactly what’s wrong with one of the most common ways we determine what “affordable” means. Tomorrow, we’ll look at an alternative measure, and on Wednesday, we’ll examine the particular challenges of understanding “affordability” for owner-occupied homes. Given
The way we measure housing affordability is broken Read More »
A story published by the Washington Post’s Wonkblog last week made the headline claim that “The McMansion is back, and bigger than ever.” The article says that new homes are an average of 1,000 feet larger than in 1982, and that the “death of the McMansion” has been highly exaggerated, as have claims that development
Misleading Medians & the McMansion Mirage Read More »
The red state/blue state divide is a persistent feature of American politics. Political differences among states are also associated with important economic differences, and a similar patterns hold across and within metro areas. Big cities are more likely to be blue, and smaller towns and rural areas are red. The more densely populated portions of
Is life really better in Red States (and cities)? Read More »
The big idea: housing in desirable city neighborhoods in getting more expensive because the demand for urban living is growing. The solution? Build more great neighborhoods. To an economist, prices are an important signal about value: rising prices for an object or class of objects signal increasing value relative to other objects. In our conventional supply
Our Shortage of Cities: Portland Housing Market Edition Read More »
The creation and allocation of living space within a metropolitan area shapes our well-being and the regional economy.
