It's a good day fer reading at dbis, very interesting Bear.

An additional treatment of unproductice home ownership costs I stumbled upon yesterday:

http://www.americandreamcoalition.org/penalty.html

The Planning Penalty How Smart Growth Makes Housing Unaffordable

Smart growth and other land-use restrictions cost U.S. homebuyers at least $275 billion in 2005. This conclusion is based on several measures of housing affordability in more than 300 metropolitan areas. The 48-page report finds that high housing prices are almost always due to government planning rules that prevent homebuilders from meeting the demand for new homes. Such rules cause prices to increase much faster than incomes, which quickly makes housing unaffordable.

Special editions of the report are available for several states, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Florida, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin. These editions and briefing papers for each state reveal just what planning has done to housing affordability in dozens of metropolitan areas.

How do we measure housing affordability? Several measures are described on this affordability measurements page.

The report estimates that planning-induced housing shortages have added at least $100,000 to the cost of a median-value home in more than fifty metropolitan areas. This is the penalty people must pay for buying a home in a region with smart-growth planning. The penalty ranges as high as $850,000 in the San Francisco metropolitan area. In fifty more areas, planners have imposed penalties of $25,000 to $100,000 per home. The report notes that these costs are conservatively calculated and probably average at least 25 percent more.

Is housing overpriced in your city or region? Find out using our pricing guide.

Most planning penalties are far more than the so-called costs of sprawl. According to page 13 of The Costs of Sprawl 2000, low-density development costs about $11,000 more for urban services than compact development. Why is it better to make all homebuyers pay $25,000 to $850,000 more for homes than to make some pay $11,000? ... there is more>

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