text: While I get that the theory of supply & demand predicts that increased property development will reduce housing prices, in real life it usually has the opposite effect.  Or at least that's what I've observed ... but of course like most economic theories, it can't ever be proven or disproven.
  
  It does seem that every major stimulation of real-estate development is accompanied with a burst in market speculation, which draws a bunch of foreign money into the marketplace & drives up the price of everything. That might be the economics-based theory of why we don't see this supply/demand effect on housing that we keep hoping for.
  
  I would love to see Oregon, or at least Portland, place a specific tariff on non-resident real estate investment, and use that to subsidize low-income housing.  Portland's buildings should be for Portland's citizens.  Young families shouldn't have to compete in a bidding war against billionaire speculators just to find a home.