Hi Conor,
Brookings published a report a while back making the case for developing “growth centers” in some more underutilized metropolitan areas to counter the significant imbalance in the geography of economic growth. Jobs and capital spreading out more evenly would impact many aspects of regional economies, one certainly being housing markets.
This is happening to some extent in places like Austin, Raleigh, or Nashville, but as smaller cities to begin with, they’re already facing some of the same housing issues due to rapid growth. However, larger legacy cities like Detroit, St. Louis, Baltimore, Cleveland, etc, theoretically have the bones to more easily take on significant population gains.
People moving to a select few metropolitan areas has played a role in creating the housing crises in those areas. How big of a role do you think people spreading out could play in solving them, especially considering that as a nation we have much of the infrastructure already?