oh, you’re fine! 1/

but this is the essence of the crisis. @mattdarling.bsky.social points out we spend roughly 30% of income on housing pretty consistently. there are all the homes in the country, and we pay effectively a fixed price relative to income to live in them. 2/

to a first approximate (perhaps unforgivably overlooking a massive social problem), we are all housed. 3/

price, then, is not the main dimension where we’d in aggregate expect to see crisis. (though, again, see @kevinerdmann.bsky.social on housing for particularly vulnerable groups). on average, we always get our housing vouchers for 30-ish% of income. 4/

it’s variation in quality that them becomes the whole story! 5/

for my 30% of income, are the schools good like they were when i was growing up? is my 30% buying a smaller place in a neighborhood with fewer amenities or higher crime? is it buying only my share of a doubled-up household, when we’d like our own place? 6/

if these dimensions of *quality* have changed, that can be a housing crisis! 7/

of course other dimensions of quality will have changed for the better. the average household is bigger, even with more spacer per person i bet! 8/

so now we are in the real world, where there are trade-offs to account for we cannot evaluate definitively, in a value independent way! /fin

gack! sorry for a the typos, to a first *approximation* we are all housed, *then* becomes the whole story, i am sure more as well!

(and apologies to @besttrousers.bsky.social for citing @mattdarling.bsky.social when i meant the well clad Matt Darling, and to whoever @mattdarling.bsky.social is!)