Featured in Newsday: LI Housing – What Goes Up, Must Come Down

The following Letter to the Editor was published in Newsday on February 7th, 2022. You can read the original version here.

To the Editor –

While there is much to debate about how to best diversify Long Island’s housing options, there is no denying that today’s “indestructible” housing market is anything but that [“LI housing another house of cards?” Opinion, Feb.2].

The escalation in pricing that we have seen in recent years is far from sustainable, and it will eventually erode the region’s ability to attract new talent, businesses, and investment.

The great irony is that many of the communities that have seen this explosive pricing growth were first constructed to alleviate the nation’s post-World War II housing shortage. Decades later, our marked lack of housing supply further compounds the region’s other economic and environmental challenges.

As we plan for the years ahead, my advice to policymakers is to remember the old phrase “What goes up, must come down.”

With this in mind, we must ask ourselves whether our current land-use policies are equipped to collectively chart a path forward when an eventual market correction takes place.

Richard Murdocco
Commack, NY

Editor’s Note – The writer is an adjunct professor of economic development in Stony Brook University’s public policy master’s program.