This is a severely under-appreciated point about housing costs. I live in a college town and rents have been climbing to the degree where the ratio of income to housing expenses is the highest in the nation, leaving New York and San Francisco in the dust.<p>Every once in a while there will be more proposals to build condos over existing houses or apartments.  We&#x27;ve been here before: housing stock is considerably increased while rents around town are given an implicit &quot;go&quot; to be raised across the board. If you&#x27;re a financially struggling student at an Ivy League school you&#x27;re not just gonna up and leave cause your rent went up another $100-$200. You&#x27;re just gonna take out more debt. It doesn&#x27;t help that aside from campus housing there are like 3 landlords in the whole city<p>Building housing in a bull market is almost always the right choice, but let&#x27;s not pretend rents are going to magically fall. Or stop rising.  Housing is one of the most elastic goods one can find. Everyone has to sleep somewhere.