housing market

There's a fascinating article using Zillow analysis to figure out the value of food gardens to residential housing.  This isn't news to a lot of us, but it is nice to see the numbers quantified:   Minor Kitchen Remodel.  Cost: $14,917   Return on resale:  $14,645   Percentage Return:  -1.8% Major Bathroom Remodel.   Cost: $26,060  Return on resale: $24,264 Percentage return: -6.9% Here’s how a garden stacks up: Average cost of a garden per year (what people spend today):  -  $70 Average value of a garden per year (in produce):  + $600 Average value of a garden per year: + $530 So, the…

A number of people, including Ilargi and Stoneleigh at _The Automatic Earth_ have long pointed out that the interventions that the government has made in the housing market hasn't served the people. They observe, for example, that by propping up house prices artificially they've benefitted more affluent, generally older homeowners, at the expense of younger, poorer people, renters and those who would like to get into the housing market but can't afford its (still) inflated prices. The problem with this, besides the generational and class screwage is that these strategies don't serve even…

I've been meaning to write something about this New York Times article that suggests that affluent homeowners are strategically defaulting more than middle class and poor ones, but Mike the Mad Biologist said it better. While I realize regulation has become a four-letter word, regulation does force the regulated to act in certain ways that they would otherwise not. To the extent we want an ethical economic system, it needs to be structured and enforced in order to remove incentives and advantages for unethical (or 'athetical') behavior. But I realize that would be like totally Hitler What I…