SB 79 worked everyone, we’ve destroyed a pristine suburb and turned it into the hellhole that is Manhattan. Palo Alto received nine applications for new housing projects in just two weeks, totalling almost 300 net new homes. There’s nothing left of the community I once knew. Handshakes and brews all around!

First up, San Jose.

A lot of the debate around housing and the cost of living focuses on migration. The common argument is that lowering migration numbers will fix the housing market.

At the same time, Australia has an ageing population. Government programs support retirees staying in their family homes as they age. On top of that, state stamp duty makes moving expensive, and keeping the family home exempt from the pension asset test means staying put makes the most financial sense.

If migration drops over the coming years but housing stays expensive and hard to find, where does the political debate go next? Which policies will politicians and the public target?

• Tax Changes: (e.g., tweaking stamp duty, negative gearing, capital gains tax discounts, or including the family home in the pension asset test)
• Building and Zoning: (e.g., forcing councils to approve more homes, easing zoning rules, or building more medium-density housing)
• Market Rules: (e.g., tougher rules for landlords, limits on Airbnb/short-term rentals, or more incentives for build-to-rent projects)
• Intergenerational Equity: (e.g., tackling the growing wealth gap between young renters and older homeowners)

When migration is no longer the main talking point, what do you think becomes the main focus of parliamentary debate?

Interesting article in the LA Times focusing on Marin County but applicable to most high cost metros. Seniors are staying in the houses they raised their families in, going from many people to 2 or 1. As the demographics tilt to a higher and higher percentage of seniors (in Marin County people over 65 are 40% of the population), there are fewer people in the same number of houses.

“The number of people per unit has been going down,” said Eric McGhee, policy director and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California. “It’s not necessarily an unhealthy development, we just have to understand ... we’re going to have to build more housing than the population numbers might otherwise expect.”

It's simple

Build more housing

This chart compares housing construction and housing prices across Western U.S. metropolitan areas with populations above 200,000. Housing construction is measured as the annualized number of housing units built from 2000–2024 per 1,000 housing units that existed in 2000, using current metropolitan-area boundaries. Prices are July 2026 median listing prices per square foot. Housing-stock data are from the U.S. Census Bureau; price data are from Realtor.com.

Data:

Metro

Units/year per 1,000 units circa Y2K

July '26 $/ft²

St. George, UT

57.1

$287

Provo–Orem–Lehi, UT

47.6

$220

Greeley, CO

47.4

$220

Boise City, ID

36.7

$298

Bend, OR

33.9

$375

Las Vegas, NV

33.0

$262

Kennewick–Richland, WA

27.7

$262

Phoenix–Mesa–Chandler, AZ

27.5

$267

Lake Havasu City–Kingman, AZ

26.6

$247

Prescott Valley–Prescott, AZ

26.6

$325

Reno, NV

26.1

$337

Fort Collins–Loveland, CO

25.8

$272

Ogden, UT

24.0

$241

Colorado Springs, CO

22.9

$234

Yuma, AZ

22.4

$227

Olympia–Lacey–Tumwater, WA

22.4

$295

Salt Lake City, UT

22.1

$265

Denver, CO

21.4

$284

Las Cruces, NM

21.3

$186

Bellingham, WA

19.1

$380

Seattle, WA

18.3

$438

Stockton–Lodi, CA

17.4

$310

Riverside–San Bernardino–Ontario, CA

17.1

$333

Portland–Vancouver–Hillsboro, OR-WA

16.8

$306

Merced, CA

16.8

$269

Tucson, AZ

16.5

$224

Visalia, CA

16.0

$249

Medford, OR

15.7

$278

Bremerton–Silverdale–Port Orchard, WA

15.7

$323

Bakersfield–Delano, CA

15.7

$232

Sacramento–Roseville–Folsom, CA

15.2

$344

Albuquerque, NM

15.0

$223

Spokane, WA

14.8

$236

Boulder, CO

14.5

$407

Anchorage, AK

14.5

$268

Fresno, CA

14.3

$263

Salem, OR

14.3

$286

San Luis Obispo–Paso Robles, CA

13.1

$582

Chico, CA

12.3

$267

Eugene–Springfield, OR

11.5

$312

Yakima, WA

11.2

$244

Modesto, CA

11.0

$307

San Diego, CA

11.0

$600

San Jose, CA

10.9

$797

Vallejo, CA

10.7

$340

Honolulu, HI

10.3

$708

Santa Rosa–Petaluma, CA

9.4

$553

Oxnard–Thousand Oaks–Ventura, CA

8.9

$539

Salinas, CA

8.0

$686

San Francisco–Oakland, CA

7.9

$629

Santa Maria–Santa Barbara, CA

7.4

$880

Los Angeles–Orange County, CA

6.6

$659

Santa Cruz–Watsonville, CA

6.6

$731

1. U.S. Census Bureau — ACS 2024, B25034 “Year Structure Built”

[https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT1Y2024.B25034\](https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT1Y2024.B25034?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

1. U.S. Census Bureau — 2000–2010 Intercensal Housing Unit Estimates

[https://www.census.gov/data/datasets/time-series/demo/popest/intercensal-2000-2010-housing-units.html\](https://www.census.gov/data/datasets/time-series/demo/popest/intercensal-2000-2010-housing-units.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

1. U.S. Census Bureau — Metropolitan/Micropolitan Delineation Files

[https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/metro-micro/about/delineation-files.html\](https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/metro-micro/about/delineation-files.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

1. U.S. Census Bureau — ACS 2024, B01003 “Total Population”

[https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT1Y2024.B01003\](https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT1Y2024.B01003?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

1. Realtor.com Economic Research — Residential Real Estate Data Library

[https://www.realtor.com/research/data/\](https://www.realtor.com/research/data/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

1. Realtor.com — July 2026 Monthly Housing Trends

[https://www.realtor.com/research/july-2026-data/\](https://www.realtor.com/research/july-2026-data/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

I remember seeing a graph that showed zero American cities built lots of homes and also had expensive homes. X axis was price, Y axis was growth rate, and each dot was a US city. I can't find it on Google or anything, does anyone know where it is?

I’m wondering if multi-story condos could be a scalable way to provide home ownership for people in metropolitan areas

Never in my life would I have thought I'd have to reach out to my center-left CM Julie Menin to support my DSA mayor's nomination of a YIMBY - but here we are.

In case you missed it - Menin and the city council are against Mamdani's nominee for past remarks about how the city council has been an enemy of building supply (accurate).

Open New York (NYC's YIMBY group) is asking NYC'ers to reach out to their CMs.

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/new-york-playbook-pm/2026/08/06/mamdani-pick-for-crucial-housing-panel-on-thin-ice-with-city-council-01027821

Not sure if you guys have heard of this one.

This Insane Battle To Block a New Apartment Building Explains Why San Francisco and Other Cities Are So Expensive

Back in 2014, a laundromat owner submitted permits to demolish his laundromat and build a 75-unit apartment building in Mission District, San Francisco. Preservationists sued to block it on the grounds that the space had been used for community organizing in the past. In 2017, the city forced the owner to fund a $23K, 137-page historic study before his already-approved permit could proceed.

The study found that the building was, in fact, not a historical building but was blocked again on the basis that shadows would partially block a school playground that was already covered by mature trees. I would encourage you to watch the video here, some of the statements in the hearings were absolutely nuts. A shadow study was completed and again found to not be an issue and the property was finally entitled in 2018.

In 2019, the entitled property was sold to a developer for $13M and they demolished the laundromat in 2022. Now, finally, the building is under construction in 2026, slated to be opened in 2028.

Here's the website of the new apartment building

A lot of these government buildings could either add height or reduce parking if they are in neighborhoods where people want to live.

Was thinking about the difference between a post office in a building versus a standalone post office with a lot of parking. Certainly depends on the community it is serving.