Real estate, not religion, divides America

My friend Virginia Postrel just moved with her husband back to Los Angeles from Dallas. And in the new issue of The Atlantic, she's written a fascinating analysis (subscription-only) of what the radical difference in the price of housing in both places says about America. Seems that the Postrels kept ownership of their L.A. place during their seven-year sojourn in Dallas, and its value doubled. But they sold their nice townhouse (I've been there) in a happening Dallas neighborhood for ... slightly less than they paid for it. What gives?

She explains that the housing supply in Dallas, which has lots of room for development, is elastic; in L.A., it's not. It's a lot easier for middle-class and upwardly mobile people to afford housing in Dallas than it is in a place like L.A. -- I got my renovated 1914 Arts & Crafts bungalow for $165K three years ago; my L.A. pal Chris has a similar bungalow that's worth over $500K, if memory serves -- though both cities thrive for very different, even opposite, reasons:

Dallas and Los Angeles represent two distinct models for successful American cities, which both reflect and reinforce different cultural and political attitudes. One model fosters a family-oriented, middle-class lifestyle—the proverbial home-centered “balanced life.” The other rewards highly productive, work-driven people with a yen for stimulating public activities, for arts venues, world-class universities, luxury shopping, restaurants that aren’t kid-friendly. One makes room for a wide range of incomes, offering most working people a comfortable life. The other, over time, becomes an enclave for the rich. Since day-to-day experience shapes people’s sense of what is typical and normal, these differences in turn lead to contrasting perceptions of economic and social reality. It’s easy to believe the middle class is vanishing when you live in Los Angeles, much harder in Dallas. These differences also reinforce different norms and values—different ideas of what it means to live a good life. Real estate may be as important as religion in explaining the infamous gap between red and blue states.

How come? Virginia 'splains:

The unintended consequence of these land-use policies is that Americans are sorting themselves geographically by income and lifestyle—not across neighborhoods, as they used to, but across regions. People are more likely to live surrounded by others like themselves, creating a more-polarized cultural map.