One Reason L.A.'s Better Than Dallas

In her November "Culture and Commerce" column for The Atlantic Monthly, former Dallasite Virginia Postrel complains about the resale value of her Uptown town home -- which is now worth "$6,500 less than we paid for it" in 2000. Why? C'mon, you know why: "The supply of housing in Dallas...

By Robert Wilonsky

October 4, 2007

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In her November "Culture and Commerce" column for The Atlantic Monthly, former Dallasite Virginia Postrel complains about the resale value of her Uptown town home -- which is now worth "$6,500 less than we paid for it" in 2000. Why? C'mon, you know why: "The supply of housing in Dallas is elastic. When demand increases, because of growing population or rising incomes, so does the amount of housing; prices stay roughly the same."

In the meantime, Postrel and her husband's "mid-1970s three-bedroom town house in Los Angeles" is worth twice what it was in 2000 -- though, on the downside, it's in Los Angeles. Which, having actually lived in Los Angeles for 19 months in 1996 and '97, I don't really consider much of a downside, come to think of it. --Robert Wilonsky

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