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Notes -
Or perhaps they're correctly noticing that the places with the most supply are often the places with the highest prices.
That isn't how the survey was worded.
Literally 60 to 70 percent of respondents chose "substantially increase", "somewhat increase", or "have no effect on".
I don't see how that addresses what I said.
People recognize that large, booming cities have high housing prices despite huge amounts of stock, so of course they'll respond to such a poll with that in mind. The median respondent isn't analyzing this question in the way economists or even just people on a rationalist forum would. They don't assume "ceteris paribus" the way it's become second nature for economists and generally educated people. They don't recognize what the question is "getting at".
They read that poll question and call upon their general knowledge of what they know happens to housing prices when a city is booming. And they're right insofar as housing prices in booming cities increase more than housing prices in non-booming cities. That the poll has difficulty herding them into the thought experiment the poll wishes to herd them into does not mean they're imbeciles who don't think supply and demand is a thing, for housing or otherwise.
More questions from the same survey:
For each of these questions, there was a 50/50 split between "lower" (correct) and "higher or no difference" (incorrect). I have no qualms with calling these respondents "imbeciles who don't think supply and demand is a thing".
I concede!
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