alt Hacker News> Nope. More apartments mean more _expensive_ rent. This is an ironclad law of real real estate.
I don't know how to explain to you that an increase in supply results in the price of a good decreasing.
> Yup. And the rent is high because...?
High demand, low supply. Obviously.
> check the average pay in areas that don't have direct access to the city cores and the average pay in Downtowns
Yeah, because downtown office space costs more & goes disproportionately to higher-paying finance jobs. That has nothing to do with density—that's just finance bros wanting to work in the fanciest skyscrapers.
> The average total expense for _new_ cars in the US is about $1000 per month
Your source refers to cars generally: "As of 2025, the average annual cost of owning a car in the U.S. has reached approximately $12,297, translating to about $1,025 per month." Even with your $500/month figure, transit is still much cheaper. And that $500 isn't just distributed among riders—drivers pay some of it too, as they should, since every person on the subway is person not driving on the road, reducing the need for road infrastructure maintenance & expansion.
> Just one mile of tunnel in Manhattan now costs more than 1500 miles of 6-lane freeway!
Again, Manhattan is unique. I don't know why you keep referring back to it as if its problems are easily generalizable. They put their trash on the street in bags because they don't have room for dumpsters. Also, yes, that's why LRTs are popular—no tunnel required.
> I don't know how to explain to you that an increase in supply results in the price of a good decreasing.
You assume that the _demand_ is constant. It's not. And the supply increases can't feasibly outpace the demand increases.
> Yeah, because downtown office space costs more & goes disproportionately to higher-paying finance jobs. That has nothing to do with density—that's just finance bros wanting to work in the fanciest skyscrapers.
And why does this happen in Seattle, SF, Chicago?
> Your source refers to cars generally
New cars. An average car is now 13 years old.
> Even with your $500/month figure, transit is still much cheaper.
I literally provided you the source that proves that just the OPERATIONS budget is the same order of magnitude as the _total_ cost of car ownership, including capital expenses, insurance, and financing. This ensures that the total cost of transit will dwarf the cost of car ownership.
> Again, Manhattan is unique.
No, it's not. Seattle's failrail will cost about the same amount per track mile. It's so far projected to cost $120B, or over $120k for each and every houseshold.