Hi First name / there,
We had a ton of new folks join last week (yay!! So happy to have you here! 🤗), and many of you landed here via
this post from Orlando Soria about house flipping shows and the general harm that house flippers [unintentionally] inflict on the housing market.
I love this conversation because a few years ago, I don’t think it was being discussed at anywhere near this level. And I think the more we learn about the actions that have led us to the housing crisis we are in now, the more empowered we are to demand change.
HGTV used to be my absolute favorite channel. I still watch it! My grandma and I used to bond over our love of great (and bad) transformations and Joanna Gaines’ garden. As a kid, I dreamed of becoming an interior designer while watching makeovers and learning about designers’ processes. And as an adult, I kept coming back to that dream (I offer design consultations and I wrote freelance for design publications like Architectural Digest, Domino and Apartment Therapy). I owe a lot to the genre.
Of course, shows like
Good Bones and
Fixer Upper aren’t solely responsible for investor-fueled housing price hikes. But they certainly do factor into this moment, and in the case of places like Waco, Texas, the “HGTV effect” directly changes the landscape of entire communities.
I’ve started broadening my understanding of housing in America so much through the practice of writing this newsletter, and I hope that you glean something helpful from reading it. There’s still so much I want to learn. Being in a master’s program (which somehow feels like it’s only academia-adjacent since I’m not pursuing a PhD) does weird things to my confidence level – am I actually qualified to talk about this? Who is, if not me?
Words matter. And if my planning professors have taught me one thing, it’s that my own positionality matters. I’m not a housing expert, but I do aspire to be one. I’m not a housing organizer, but I hope to elevate the voices of those who are.
With just over a month remaining in the semester, I’m trying to honor my energy levels. Instead of deep diving into a new topic today, I figured this could be a nice opportunity to recap.
Here’s what we covered so far in the “Why are homes so expensive” series:
There’s a lot more to cover here, and honestly, I never thought I’d be excited to talk about things like economics and tax policy. We’ll keep building together!
Oh! One last fun thing before I sign off. I’m heading to Nashville, TN this weekend with Anela from
Feed the Malik! Anela hosts an impressive subscriber community (among other great pursuits) and recently announced that she’s extending an extra fun perk to subscribers – trips! And I’m the lucky first! If you aren’t already a member of her community… well,
this is your sign.
Until next week,
🧡 Dominique
