Abundance

by Ezra Klein

And that land reveals the problem America faces now. A young family can still follow Horace Greeley’s advice and find a cheap home in the rural West. What they typically cannot do is follow Horace Greeley’s example and build a life in Manhattan, where the median home now sells for $1.1 million. Or in San Francisco, where the median home sells for $1.3 million. Or in Los Angeles, where the asking price hovers around $1 million. Or in Seattle, where the median home is over $900,000. Or in Boston, where it’s $830,000. Housing follows the laws of supply and demand. When supply is thick and demand is light, prices fall. The average home in Cleveland sells for about $115,000. When supply is tight and demand is hot, prices rise. That is the story of the pricey, blue cities listed above. America used to be adept at building homes. In 1950, the US Census Bureau reported that America had added 8.5 million units in the previous decade, even with the interruption of a world war.