Our readingWhat is a korrent?
Drawn from what Pieter Levels, Samuel Hughes and 2 others said
housing What a place to live costs and why: how much gets built, zoning, and who is blamed for the price.
Their wordsThe chart of housing affordability is almost a direct inverse of how many new homes are built It's that simple Build more houses!
Their wordsWithout densification restrictions, housing shortages will only ever be serious in cities where land is really intensely scarce, as in Hong Kong.
Where this was said
↗Europe's housing shortages are even worse than America'sworksinprogress.news
All 5 korrents from this piecethis one is 3rd
Their wordsThis is exactly how building market-rate housing — even fancy “luxury” market-rate housing — makes housing more affordable in general.
Their wordsAdding chairs to the game—any kind of chairs—will tend to make the competition less cutthroat for the chairs already in play.
Where this was said
↗There's No Such Thing as Affordable Housingstrongtowns.org
All 4 korrents from this piecethis one is 4th
Added to korrents 31 Aug 2026 · How quotes work · Something wrong? Tell us
Do you hold this korrent?Do you also believe this?
I hold this tooCannot both be true
Smith and Levels hold that affordability is almost the direct inverse of how much gets built. Alexander argued the opposite in May 2023 — density is what people are moving to a city for, so building more of it raises local prices — and abandoned it eighteen days later after a poll found only 5% of readers with economics degrees agreed. The claims cannot both be right, and the man who made the losing one says so himself.
Supports
Calling the private-equity story an excuse for deferring zoning reform only lands if supply is what actually sets affordability. That is the premise Smith and Levels state directly, and it is the one doing the work in the argument about landlords.
Shared subject first, then similar wording. They may agree or disagree.