Sunday, June 6, 2010

Maxinne Udall, I have a better idea.

Girl Economists describes the problem with "Stranded In Suburbia"
A private sector-inflated housing bubble resulted in a huge excess of housing, which Douglas Duncan, vice president and chief economist for Fannie Mae, is now suggesting might be better to bulldoze. Who will pay for the bulldozing I wonder? Not the same people who built or financed the now worthless houses, I'll bet (although it does have possibilities as a job creation program).
Clicking through the link about bulldozing houses, we find that places like Inland Empire in CA have transportation costs to high to maintain the Suburb.  And sure enough:
By Rex Nutting
MarketWatch Pulse

WASHINGTON - The vacancy rate for homes ready to be sold was steady at 2.7%. In the past year, the housing inventory rose by 1.14 million to 130.9 million, while occupied homes increased by 1.07 million to 111.9 million.

So, Girl Economist has identified that transportation costs have lowered the utility of suburban living.  That is an excess demand for cheap transportation.  Either that or an deficient supply of cheap transportation.  This does not sound like a General Glut to me.

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