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August 06, 2003

Why Housing is So Expensive in NYC

When people complain about housing prices in New York City, many conservatives try to blame rent control, an odd villain since new housing built is free from rent control (unless the builder trades acceptance of tax subsidies for agreeing to stabilize prices).

But the real villain, especially in Manhattan, is "preservation" and zoning rules used to fight new buildings. See this story where none other than Peter Jennings is leading the charge in the name of preserving "the character of the neighborhood" against building a 14-story apartment building (which is far smaller than originally proposed because of earlier waves of opposition) in the Upper West Side.

Along with the comments below, Atrios has a good comments thread going on this subject.

Posted by Nathan at August 6, 2003 09:49 AM