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Before the municipal elections in my city, the mayor said something like: "I built new schools, new roads, new parks! I was a great mayor! And the best proof is that property values increased by 80%!".

The opposition said something like: "The housing prices become impossibly high! Young couples are abandoning the city!".

In fact, both these claims are correct! The mayor did do a lot of good things in the city, this made many rich people from other cities want to buy houses in the city, so the housing prices increased and became too high for young couples.

MY QUESTION IS: Can a mayor BOTH improve the quality of life in his city AND make it possible for the younger generation to live in the city in which they grew up?

One obvious option is to build a lot of new houses, in order to satisfy the increased demand. But this is not always possible due to area constraints or country-wide regulations.

Is there another way to cut the knot?

Erel Segal-Halevi
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  • It is highly unlikely that the major management lead to that raise. If that was the only cause, living in that city would be "twice better" than when he took charge. It seems it is a weasel that took the statistics and retorted it that way. Most likely, housing prices are being increased due to rising economy/foreign purchases/low interest ratio, with your major effect being marginal (check how prices in similar towns nearby are changing) – SJuan76 Sep 20 '15 at 21:08

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I would guess trying to get the Fed involved in HuD housing to offer some housing with price controls; as well as, getting rent control past the city council thus providing reasonable rentals too.

user15138
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