New homes make old homes cheaper too

Ed Mendoza of the Metropolitan Abundance Project has a new feature leveraging research by the Pew Charitable Trusts on how new housing construction moderates older and more affordable “Class C” housing rents even more than other, newer, “Class A” housing prices. Although organizations like the National Low Income Housing Coalition rightly remind supply-side YIMBYs that families earning less than 60% of metropolitan Area Median Income in the US will usually need income transfers to afford safe and dignified housing that meets contemporary middle class norms, YIMBYism in high-rent regions is still a powerful antipoverty tool that helps people of all incomes.