Welcome to Z-Pack:.one topic, 2 minutes - easy to consume and fast-acting ⚡️

If this is your first Z-Pack, welcome - I'm Zach.

I’m chronically online, finding out how the world works.

⬇️ Let’s get it.

🏚️ The reason why you can’t afford a home

The headlines: The U.S. is experiencing an unprecedented housing crisis right now and WE DON’T KNOW WHY.

The reality: uhmmm.. it’s not great, but it’s not the WORST it’s ever been, like pre-WW2.

Why is rent and housing taking up a bunch of our income? 

The U.S. : “well, isn’t it the consequences of my own actions… 👀”

The U.S., and especially cities like London and Dublin, simply do NOT build a lot of housing, which is the crux of the issue.

The TLDR:

In most places in the U.S. (and the world), higher rates of housing construction lowers rents and housing prices. So we gotta build build build.

“But, Zach, why don’t we just build more housing?”

In as few words as possible — because most Americans have their wealth tied up to the value of their home, so the higher your house value, the more potential equity you have. And the fewer homes there are around you, the more valuable your home is, especially if there’s lots of demand for a home in your area.

The incentives are WHACK, so unfortunately, many people choose to block new housing in the area, using excuses like “character of the neighborhood.”

We see this same thing happen across the world — Auckland, New Zealand, for example, just got rid of a bunch of silly regulations. Since then, Auckland has built many new apartments, multi-family units, etc. that have helped lower housing prices.

But do you want to know where housing affordability isn’t a big issue?

Do you know which city built more housing in the last 50 years than ALL of the housing that’s in New York City?

In the biggest city in the world.

The “New Paris”— Tokyo, Japan.

Now that you’re armed with The Truth 😇, hopefully you’ll be able to dodge crappy takes like this one 👇

Don’t be acting like Charlie and try and connect totally unrelated things together:

Still hungry for more info?

• This post here explains more behind how Tokyo has stayed pretty affordable
  

• Darrell Owens, a data analyst, is also a great follow on Twitter/X along with his Substack newsletter 

• Why everything you know about homelessness is wrong (a blog post)
  

• Read this great little book called Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It, to learn more about how and why (hint: racism) local governments across the U.S. first made rules about what kind of housing you can build, how you have to have parking, follow certain building codes, and depend on a car.
  

Thanks for taking the Pack,

Zach

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Disclaimer: This is not financial advice or recommendation for any investment. The Content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.