Sponsored link
Wednesday, June 24, 2026

Sponsored link

Why building more market-rate housing can’t possibly solve the city’s crisis

JULY 15, 2014 — Yesterday, we presented Part One of our Housing Video Series, explaining how San Francisco got into this mess. And in Part Two, we show how the “market-based solution” that the mayor and so many others appear to favor — just building and building for-profit market-rate housing — will eventually bring down costs.

Fact: We have abundant empirical data to show that’s just not true. Check out this video and understand why trickle-down housing economics won’t work in San Francisco — and to get a sense of what will.

By the way: If you want an idea of what happens to a city that is enamored of building highrise housing without much limit, check out Vancouver. Once a jewel of the West Coast, it now looks like … Hong Kong.  Or Miami Beach on steroids. And housing prices are still out of reach for many.

You want SF to look like this?
You want SF to look like this?

 

Tim Redmond
Tim Redmond
Tim Redmond has been a political and investigative reporter in San Francisco for more than 30 years. He spent much of that time as executive editor of the Bay Guardian. He is the founder of 48hills.

48 Hills welcomes comments in the form of letters to the editor, which you can submit here. We also invite you to join the conversation on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

Sponsored link

Sponsored link
Sponsored link

Latest

After hours of heart-wrenching public testimony, supes may save some programs

Budget deal will include millions in add-backs—but not enough to prevent the loss of critical services as police budget approaches $1 billion

Who is she? Comedian John Early holds the key to ‘Maddie’s Secret’

'I could take a women's picture-type TV-movie narrative and inject it with a Paul Verhoeven kind of intensity,' says filmmaker.

The Chron and right wing are now blaming DSA and Dean Preston for the problems of tech IPOs

The 'left' didn't create the housing crisis, and the free market is never going to solve it. Let's unpack the latest bogus media narrative

SF public bank plan moves toward November ballot

A groundbreaking concept in local finance could begin operations after a Charter Amendment that—so far—has little visible opposition.

You might also likeRELATED