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houseofnoel t1_itg8qnz wrote

Imagine the US government told auto dealers they could only sell 100 cars a year. Which cars do you think they’d focus on selling? Toyota Corollas? Of course not, they’d sell exactly 100 luxury vehicles, where the highest profit margins are. However, auto dealerships are free to sell as many cars as they want, hence we end up with all sorts of cars on the road, at all sorts of price points. Don’t you see how it’s the same with housing construction? That the totality of local zoning laws limit the construction of new housing so much that developers only build luxury units? But if it was even half as easy, legally, to build and sell housing as it was cars, then they’d collectively build and sell a lot more housing units? Taking away parking minimums is one small step toward removing the barriers to mass housing construction. In my hypothetical, it’s like letting auto dealerships sell 105 cars instead of 100. Yes, they’ll still be luxury cars, but that’s only because you haven’t relaxed restrictions enough.

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