Stop calling it that.

• In 1989, the US home ownership rate was 64%. Now, it’s 63%.
• There is an estimated 15 million vacant homes in the US (compared to only 600k unhoused people).
• The number of houses in the US has gone from 78 million in 1975 to 145 million in 2023 (an 85% increase) while the population has gone from 211 million to 340 million (a 61% increase) in the same time.

“But dginovker”, you might say. The median house price in 1980 was 64k, in 2015 it was 275k. How is that not a housing crisis?

Because it’s a wealth inequality crisis.

This data checks out with statistica and cadtm

If we had an actual housing crisis, the issue could be resolved in 5 years by building a couple apartments (and yes, that is good even if you don’t want to live in apartments, since other people moving into apartments makes detached homes cheaper). But we don’t have a housing crisis. We have a crisis where inflation made your job pay 50% less. We have a crisis where the government is going broke to the billionaires. The housing crisis is a symptom of this issue.

We don’t have a housing crisis. Stop calling it that.

Anyways, time for dinner 🎩🍴