What if paying closer attention to the numbers could improve our communities?

5 Oct 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:57

In this short commentary, the speaker argues that real‑estate and community decision‑making should be grounded in concrete supply‑and‑demand metrics rather than rhetoric. He emphasizes that the economic principle of supply and demand applies universally—regardless of immigration status—and that before committing to large‑scale housing projects (e.g., a promise to build 300,000 units) policymakers should examine demographic and occupancy data to determine actual need. By “taking the temperature down a notch,” stakeholders can move from emotionally charged debates to objective, numbers‑based policies that better serve residents and produce more effective outcomes.

Chapters

when you start paying attention across the board, you have to figure out that supply and demand is a real economic concept that has an impact on everybody, whether Native, legal immigration, illegal immigrant, doesn't matter. And I think it'd be good if we in real estate got really focused on paying attention to numbers so that when we get a promise of 300,000 properties being built, we then can look at the metrics and say, do we need that many? Do we need less? Do we need more? Based on the metrics of the humans that live there. Then we could actually probably drive some good policy decisions and some results based on what we're told. But that means everybody's got to take their temperature down a notch so that we can figure things out. Because I do think most people want to do right by other people in some way, shape, or form. And what that looks like can have a lot to do with the realities of the numbers.