Curbed, the urban-lifestyle site that’s part of New York magazine, has a smart little feature today where they interview a variety of young New Yorkers and ask them to describe their dream life in New York. What kind of house would they like? In what neighborhood or suburb of the city? Would they like kids and what kind of school would they attend? What would be their choices for leisure and travel? It was pleasant to read of so many aspiring to have and raise families of two, three, or four children in their future. Then the editors set about estimating the cost of the lifestyle, trying to determine it based on the average prices of goods, housing, and so on.
The results were eye-popping and scandalous. But I think they point to a major political problem that both parties must address — which is that America is still a growing country, but opportunity seems to be concentrated in a handful of cities, none of which are building housing stock fast enough for inward migration. The resulting inflation of housing prices warps our generational politics.