I've admired Dean Baker for a long time, particularly because I recall that he was critical of the Fed's tight money policy during and following the Great Recession. However, he continues to feed the fallacy of the housing bubble theory on the basis of the Case-Shiller Index. Supply and lending constraints have emerged as the Uber-issue in housing availability, but I can't say how mainstream that thinking is---your op-ed helps.
As a general rule, I think that efforts to reduce rental costs for low to moderate income people through increased multifamily production is the critical component in Closed Access cities. The Boston metro region will not start producing starter homes for this segment---we've created geographical and political constraints that are nearly insurmountable. Large scale rental projects that gradually densify city cores and close suburbs are more efficient.
I've admired Dean Baker for a long time, particularly because I recall that he was critical of the Fed's tight money policy during and following the Great Recession. However, he continues to feed the fallacy of the housing bubble theory on the basis of the Case-Shiller Index. Supply and lending constraints have emerged as the Uber-issue in housing availability, but I can't say how mainstream that thinking is---your op-ed helps.
As a general rule, I think that efforts to reduce rental costs for low to moderate income people through increased multifamily production is the critical component in Closed Access cities. The Boston metro region will not start producing starter homes for this segment---we've created geographical and political constraints that are nearly insurmountable. Large scale rental projects that gradually densify city cores and close suburbs are more efficient.