by Howard Husock, RodeJanuary 17, 2025.
Fragments:
The US is facing a housing affordability crisis, and new data is emerging Realtor.comhighlight an often-missed contributing factor: millions of empty bedrooms. Census data reveals 31.8 million “excess” bedrooms in American homes – compared to just 4 million in 1970. Overregulation, especially in zoning and local occupancy laws, is one of the culprits.
And:
But even if homeowners want to use these “spare rooms,” they may run afoul of local law. Research I conducted for the American Enterprise Institute and found that in 23 of the thirty largest U.S. cities, there are laws limiting the number of residents who are considered “unrelated,” with a “family” being defined only as a group whose members are related by blood, marriage or adoption. In St. Louis, no more than three unrelated people are allowed to live together. In Sugar Land, Texas the limit is four. Private homeowners associations can be even stricter. In the Chase Oaks Homeowners Association in Plano, Texas, a “household” cannot include more than two unrelated people, although there is an exception for live-in employees.
by Johan Norberg, RodeFebruary 2025.
Extract:
But with a newly emboldened Trump assembling a cabinet of national security hawks and economic nationalists, we appear to be heading for much more than that. Several of his government choices have led to the decoupling of the US and Chinese economies and the imposition of severe technological restrictions. And that wouldn’t make the situations that make people concerned about China any better. It would make them much, much worse.
The first casualty of any trade war is the economy. Many Americans are under the impression that only Beijing benefits from US-China trade. But a one percentage point increase in imports from China caused a 1.9 percent drop in U.S. consumer prices, saving a representative U.S. household about $1,500 a year, according to research. one estimate by Professor Xavier Jaravel of the London School of Economics and economist Erick Sager of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
The effect was largest in product categories that are more popular among low-income consumers, such as clothing and consumer electronics. After winning the election largely on dissatisfaction with inflation, Trump appears poised to begin his second administration with tariffs that would raise consumer prices.
DRH comment: While I agree with the general gist of the article and also agree that opening up to imports lowers prices, I think the 1.9% drop must be wrong. It seems very numerous. For example, it means that we could reduce consumer prices by 3.8 percent if imports from China increased by two percentage points.
I would explain my reasoning, but I invite the reader to think about it.
by Jack Nicastro, Reason, January 17, 2025.
Extract:
Wildfires in Greater Los Angeles have claimed at least 25 lives and more than 12,000 structures. Governor of California Gavin Newsom has decided to allow the city to rebuild faster waivedburdensome California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) assessments and Coastal Act requirements for properties damaged and destroyed by the fires. Newsom also stated one state of emergency which gave rise to several California provisions law against price gouging.
Suspending CEQA assessments and Coastal Act requirements will expand housing construction by reducing construction time and costs. If we prohibit prices from rising due to market forces, it will have the opposite effect.
Section B of the Anti-Price Gouging Law, which is in effect until January 2026, prohibits sellers from raising the price of food, emergency services and housing by more than 10 percent above pre-emergency prices. Section C, also active until January next year, applies the same restriction to reconstruction services. Sections D, E and F prohibit similar price increases for hotel and motel rates and rent, while evictions are prohibited until March 8.
Price controls cause shortages. That is the opposite of a pro-recovery policy.
For more on a large-scale recovery from a much further decimated economy, a recovery that was due in large part to the end of price controls, see David R. Henderson, ‘German Economic Miracle’, in David R. Henderson, ed. ., The concise encyclopedia of economics.