When the primary argument against building more housing is that it will lower the price of housing for people who live in the neighborhood, who depend on their house as their primary investment — something has really gone wrong.
The assumption that you have the natural right to move into your house, pay no rent the whole time you're using it, and sell it for a profit when you move out is really something.
The cost of buying a house is approximately equal to rent in terms of exchanging money for goods and services.
The promblem is that people expect there's net profit from resale, when instead houses should be a depreciating asset.
Rent encapsulates property taxes, maintenance and upkeep, improvements, cost of construction, cost of land acquisition, and sometimes utilities.
Taking those factors into effect, most home sales are not net profitable, but we say they are, because we only look at land and construction costs.
