Andy Bradford wrote:
Houses haven't gotten cheaper over the decades.
According to which standard of measure?
Here are a couple ways to measure it. Look at the ratio of median home
price to median income today. Now look at the same ratio 30 years ago.
The ratio is higher today. Same story if you compare the ratio of home
price increases to inflation. Now compare the ratio of Toy prices to
median income today and 30 years ago. Toy prices are *down*. Go look up
the numbers for yourself. Everyone seems to have anecdotal evidence
otherwise (including myself), but the numbers are widely published.
Homes are more expensive today than they were 30 years ago. And yet,
they are made with less quality (by others' and my admittance).
House prices have out-paced inflation at least 5 to 1. Why isn't the
quality going *up* if houses are getting more expensive?
I assume you have the answer. Care to share the wealth?
I already said it. Developer greed and population growth, leading to
quality reduction and limited supply, respectively. Couple that with
lots of home-ownership hype (stopping THROWING your money away in rent),
and you get today's environment: expensive, crappy, ugly houses built on
too little land.
That's my answer. What's yours? Here's the question, restated: If houses
really are more expensive today (even inflation adjusted) than they were
in days past, why isn't the quality higher? (Obviously some aspects are
higher quality, like electrical, plumbing, roofing, etc.) That's an open
question to everyone, but obviously it presupposes that you agree with
me on the previous paragraph, which you perfectly well may not.
Houses are not Transformer toys. Toys have gotten cheaper. Houses have
gotten more expensive, and yet both toys and houses have gone *down*
in quality. Yes, comparing houses to toys is logical fallacy (proof by
false analogy, actually).
Will you offer a proof by true analogy?
Frankly I don't see a need for any analogy when the situation is so
obvious to me in the base case. :)
--Dave
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