Hello, John.

 

 

In 2008, we realized that the meteoric increase in the housing market wasn't "growth," as we had believed, but a growing bubble—we noticed when that bubble burst.

 

When we trade long-term fiscal stability for short-term growth, we create markets that fluctuate between extreme highs and devastating lows. This causes fragility on a national scale, and in our own communities.

 

Now, twelve years later, housing is back to 2008 levels. Do we call it a bubble? No. We call it a "recovery."

 

Founder Charles Marohn writes for Strong Towns today about how this "inflated sense of self-esteem" is part of the illness. In other words, we haven't learned our lesson.

 

In order to stop the cycle, we have got to abandon the high-risk projects that have gotten us into this mess—risks like those taken in the debt-funded early aughts housing market. We must make the small, repeatable bets that will make our homes anti-fragile.

 

This is the way we stave off disastrous decline and grow stronger, slowly but surely, over time—the Strong Towns way.

 

 

– Lauren at Strong Towns