Michael Storper and Patrick Condon opine on what California's population demographics really reveal about housing, density, economic development, jobs, and affordability.
In light of two recent columns published by the New York Times dragging California as the poster child for nearly every governance malady imaginable, but particularly housing, TPR invited economic geographer Michael Storper and Patrick Condon to respond to the NYT commentary and opine on what California's population demographics really reveal about housing, density, economic development, jobs, and affordability.
Both rebut the assumption that market-rate housing supply is the answer to correcting housing prices and wealth inequality. Condon concisely iterates the need for affordability requirements to check land price inflation while ensuring social benefit, and Storper emphasizes the role that shifting geography of jobs and wages plays in migration—not housing supply.
"Most of this has to do with the geography of jobs and wages, and is not caused by housing prices. Housing prices reflect and follow this reality, they have not caused this new geography." —Michael Storper
For the full excerpts, visit The Planning Report.
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City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research