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In January, 2002, the National Association of Home Builders and the National
Association of Realtors asked recent home buyers about the factors which
influenced their home buying decisions. Here are the percentages of people
responding "important" or "very important:" Houses spread out: 62%; Bigger house: 47%; Bigger lot: 45%; Less developed
area: 40%; Away from the city: 39%
Bigger houses spread out on bigger lots in less developed areas away from
cities!
Hold on--doesn't anybody want "Smart Growth?" Oh, sure: Smaller houses
(10%) on smaller lots (9%) closer to public transit (13%).
What do these results mean? They mean the cost of housing can go only one
direction over the long run . . . up. As the supply of suitable land for
housing declines, the price of such land goes up. Further, the cost of food
goes up
as farmland is paved over to become residential lots and parking lots and
shopping malls and commercial campuses.
Yet the same politicians who want to create "affordable housing" for
everyone, refuse to work toward the one thing which would stop increasing demand
for
land and increasing housing costs--a stable population.
If you know of an organization which is primarily concerned about the
connection between rampant population growth and increasing housing cost, please
click on "Contact Us" and tell us about yourself and about that
organization.
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