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modrianolast Thursday at 6:49 AM1 replyview on HN

The prices may be falling, but if you can still make more profit (per unit time) building in Austin than elsewhere (due to less red tape or more local builders or whatever), building will occur.


Replies

estearumlast Thursday at 10:24 PM

No, it's absolutely possible that building as a whole is not a good use of capital. There is not some fixed quantity of people-who-must-build and dollars-that-must-be-spent-building.

If the incentive disappears, the people and dollars disappear. And they have to clear a much higher bar than merely being profitable. Because it's a capex heavy industry, development must compete against other ways to invest capital (like S&P 500 or the US 10-Year).