...Building contractors from Dublin, Ireland to Dublin, California, and everywhere in-between were getting sweetheart deals from municipal governments to construct housing that even today remains vacant.
What the heck? The overbuilding had nothing whatever to do with municipal governments, angus. It is just the normal cycle of under-regulated markets - boom and bust. Its capitalism, thought you liked it.
Sure, it was driven by increased disposable income and realty speculation. But had to do with planning policy as well. Or lack thereof. Failure to provide incentives for high-density growth near public transit points as well as tax breaks for contractors urge detached-housing construction booms. Also, valuations are done by private firms for governments in order to determine taxes based upon pre-set rates. So houses get over-valued, and entire neighborhoods go empty in bust years.
I'm not for completely unregulated capitalism.
Dublin, CA actually did build a lot of transit friendly housing in the late 90's and 2000's, though a lot were your standard detached housing. But they didn't have a 1/4 acre in the back like houses in other parts of the country and were pretty dense for the most part. And I do believe most of the houses built are filled. Prices fell in the outer east bay, but not to the degree as in Socal or even in the central valley on the other side of the Altamont pass (or in Brentwood and Antioch). That's where the real overbuilding happened. The enviro-nazis stopped it from happening in the Bay Area proper.
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