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It is. The lengths some will go to in order to prevent an honest discussion of how Cincinnati works is silly.

Cincinnati's housing markets share some significant characteristics with the vibrant and appealing metros of Youngstown, Scranton, and Wichita. https://www.businessinsider.com/most-popular-housing-markets-metro-areas-for-generation-z-homebuyers#2-metro-area-grand-rapids-wyoming-mi-9

How do you know that?

https://www.nationalmortgagenews.com/news/coronavirus-wont-lead-to-another-great-recession-for-housing "By metro area, Cleveland home prices grew the most at 3.5%, trailed by 1.4% in Milwaukee and 0.8% in Cincinnati. The greatest decreases came with San Francisco's 8.4%, Boston's 8.2% and Denver's 8.1%." Again and again, you'll find that Cincinnati is at one end of virtually every spectrum of economic activity. It's not "in line" with other metros. It's not a moderate, average, or representative metro when it comes to housing or most other measures of economic activity.

Cincinnati renters are among the least "burdened" renters in America. That is, there's less incentive to invest in rental property in Cincinnati than in most metros in America.https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/many-renters-are-burdened-housing-costs.

There's some hopeful news for Cincinnati's housing market in this article on March housing markets. https://www.gjsentinel.com/news/colorado/re-max-national-housing-report-for-march-2020/article_4e0202ce-fded-5e0d-a6e7-75ad6a5a95c3.html

Values aren't rising 15-20 percent a year in Columbus, Indy, or various southern boomtowns. Cincinnati and SF are at opposite ends of the spectrum of housing markets. Almost every metro in America is somewhere between these two extremes in most measures of housing markets. Increasing values are an important incentive for investment. To pretend otherwise is an example of the defensiveness I've described.

Tell us about New York.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/early-data-point-slight-housing-040028517.html In metros with high property values and/or high numbers of transactions, these declines mean that either sellers have less incentive to sell now. In metros with lower values and/or low numbers of transactions, these declines show that more limited markets are less affected by macroeconomic forces. The pandemic is shuffling things dramatically, though temporarily, I'm sure. Dallas and Cincinnati, for example, couldn't be more different housing markets.

Rising prices are an important incentive to invest in NEW housing. Housing isn't a zero sum game, well, at least not in most metros.

London, Paris, and New York are amongst the most transient cities on earth. The residents of those cities share less tradition and heritage of those particular cities and neighborhoods than anywhere on the planet. I'm not talking about buildings and street festivals. I'm talking about the social experience of living in a place. The population of manhattan must have a 90% turn over rate every decade. Only the super rich stick around that long these days. Up until the pandemic, New York was a giant perpetual motion machine with people flowing in around, and out continuously. Cincinnatians use the terms 'tradition' and 'heritage' to refer to how Cincinnati functions. They aren't actually seeking to capitalize on Cincinnati's history or culture. They are just rationalizing Cincinnati's poor performance in the guise of history and culture. When you point out the high percentage of very poor people, the areas of concentrated crime, or the very low property values in many parts of Cincinnati, locals respond that that is just the way Cincinnati is. They say that people prefer it that way. They SAY it's Cincinnati's 'heritage' and 'tradition.' They imply that Cincinnati can't be different than it is. Poverty, crime, and very low property values are inherent that way, they say. They assert that Cincinnatians don't really care about reducing crime or having higher incomes or increasing property values and that one must accept Cincinnati as it is. Change, they imply, is impossible because Cincinnati is 'just that way.' They use 'heritage' and 'tradition' to really mean fatalism. Some of the comments in this very forum describe the advantages of being a landlord or real estate investor in places with low property values. These attitudes don't come out of nowhere. They develop in response to the reality of Cincinnati's real estate and job markets over time.

"Better" for who?

That isn't a quote of my comments. I never wrote such a thing. I don't know who's being warned about what.

Cincinnati is NOT "right in line with other I legitimately want to know why anyone thinks that "heritage" or 'tradition" are assets. The most rapidly growing cities don't worry about such things. That means they are unnecessary for growth, as much as some may value these ideas...whatever they may actually mean by these terms. The rhetorical use of "heritage" and 'tradition' in Cincinnati is meant to deflect attention from Cincinnati's failings. If someone wants to argue that such ideas have value, the burden is on them to do so. Cincinnati is NOT "right in line" with other analogous metros. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/ATNHPIUS18140Q https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/ATNHPIUS17140Q https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/ATNHPIUS31140Q All these metros saw significantly greater increases in property values with significantly larger increases in the total number of housing units or with significantly smaller metro populations in the case of Louisville. Indy and Columbus did it without virtually any sense of 'tradition' or 'heritage' at all. Cincinnati is in-line with Detroit, Cleveland, and St. Louis. Those aren't places you want to be associated with if you're trying to attract professionals, businesses, and investors.

Thanks for helping me to make my point!