Trulia and Demogaphia: Housing costs driven by restrictive land use regs is the primary correlate to intra metro inequality

Trulia did a much more professional analysis of the variables that correlate to intra-metro income inequality than the ones that I did here and here. (see, people are picking up my cudgels). They conclude that housing costs are the biggest contributor along with rate of growth. You can read their study here. Here's their magic scatter chart.



So, gee why is housing so much more expensive and therefore inequality generating in some areas rather than others. Demographia publishes and annual survey of housing costs in selected markets worldwide. As part of that they categorized all metro areas as either having a highly restrictive or 'less restrictive' land regulation which correlates to the supply of land for new metro edge housing. This is the single greatest contributor to intra metro inequality. And it's all 'smart growth' and 'progressive, green politics' - you know 'compassion' and 'fairness'. The reason why TX has three of the 5 richest > 2mm cities in the world isn't because Texans are superduper productive, it's because Texans have access to cheap land and a cheap government (and are pretty darn productive to boot). Get yourself a small government and a free market in land an watch the standard of living surge.  But I warn you:  you will then cease to be 'hip'.  Unless you're Austin, of course - they are exempt from all 'hip' related prosperity hatred.



What do the lefties ascribe inequality to? Greed. Not theirs, of course but the other guys - the evildoers, the Koch boys. Get rid of evil in the world by electing lefties and a thousand flowers will bloom. So there'll be plenty of flowers for all the homeless to weave into their filthy hair and clothes which will marginally improve their smell as they panhandle.


In other news, it turns out that the city of SFO spends $26,000 per year per homeless person which adds up to $165,000,000 a year.  It's pretty hard to get rid of the homeless when they're so damned profitable to the oh so misnamed 'helping' professions.  Vampires, more like.