Why Aren't Suburbs Good Investment For Economic Growth? (market, development, build)

[knowledgeiskey]

I have read that the the US allocated too much of its capital into housing, and that it was not a good investment.

Why is that?

[chet everett]

Ever been to industrialized countires of Asia, like Japan, Singapore, South Korea? In their cities basically everyone loves in pretty modest apartments. Those apartments did not cost much to build. The investors in those countries (which is some cases are strongly influenced by government policies...) had far more money to direct toward large factory development. Those factors are filled with machines and workers that manufacture goods for export. That is why high value Lexuses, mass market Hyundais, and all kinds of other stuff from Asia is for sale in the US and the rest of the world...

Land use in many countries is part of a broad "industrial policy" -- in the case of countries that the US helped to rebuild, that policy was largely a combined effort of our desire to instill "peace through prosperity" along with the homogenious countries willingness to follow central planning, and some "paternalism" that probably would not work in the US.

The US has very diffuse economic planning. The incentives provided to financing mortages are about the only Federal backed lending program of any consequence. Imagine what sort of high tech factories there might have been in this country if "guys with a dream" had as easy acces to capital as all the goofballs that fudged documentation for mortgages...

[brewcrew1000]

I believe they allocated too much capitol in housing because housing is our only source of Blue Collar work these days. The factories are long gone and the people who should be working in factories are the ones working in the housing industry.