# Housing is a bitch

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2017-02-22

germany, housing, housing-affordable, housing-market, interfluidity, real-estate-market, singapore, steve-randy-waldman, uncategorized, urban-housing

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I just discovered [Steve Randy Waldman’s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Randy_Waldman) blog called Interfluidity and, more specifically, a post he wrote called: “[Home is where the cartel is](http://www.interfluidity.com/v2/6287.html).” I am now following him.

He starts off by saying that housing is a bitch, which is just him saying that urban housing is a difficult problem to solve. A truism for this audience.

He doesn’t profess to have all of the answers, but he does write a thoughtful piece that covers, among other things: the “market urbanist” (supply-side) solution to solving housing affordability, the reasons why the “housing cartel” will never approve of this, and the inherent contradiction between housing as an investment and housing as a sustainably affordable good.

He also offers up Singapore and Germany as examples of two very different housing markets. It reminded me of [a tweet I retweeted](https://twitter.com/donnelly_b/status/834027012297732096) this morning which shows Germany as having the 2nd lowest homeownership rate (45%) among OECD countries.

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/housing-is-a-bitch)*