It's the Housing, Stupid

It all comes down to housing, doesn't it?

I am so glad that I moved to Greenwood, Village, CO, when I did in 2003, and that I also sold my house and moved out in 2024. GV is one of the toniest suburbs of Denver, with an average home price of well over $1million. And, that's completely out of range for working middle class people like teachers and police officers. Fortunately, at one time, the area allowed a fair number of townhouses and duplexes, which is where I was able to buy, directly adjacent from the high school. But those days are over, as several years ago, the millionaires were freaked about the possibility of multi-family housing coming to their little hamlet, and a (hysterical) group called "Save Our Village" got on city council, where they effectively outlawed the construction of anything less than single-family homes on quarter-acre lots.

I've been thinking about that recently after reading an interesting substack essay called "The Housing Theory of Everything" and a recent column from Nicholas Kristoff in the NY Times about how to save the American Dream through programs like Hope VI. 

We need some good news now, and here’s some out of left field: An important new study suggests that there’s a highly effective way to overcome one of the most intractable problems in 21st-century America — intergenerational poverty. We like to think of ourselves as a land of opportunity, but researchers find that today the American dream of upward mobility is actually more alive in other advanced countries.

The new study highlights a powerful way to boost opportunity. It doesn’t involve handing out money, and it appears to pretty much pay for itself. It works by harnessing the greatest influence there is on kids — other kids. The study, just released, is the latest landmark finding from Raj Chetty, a Harvard economist, and his Opportunity Insights group, along with other scholars.

The team dug into the long-term effects of a huge neighborhood revitalization program called Hope VI. Beginning in 1993, Hope VI invested $17 billion to replace 262 high-poverty public housing projects around America.