1.Tokyo article.

In the past two decades, home prices in some leading North American and European cities have skyrocketed. In Tokyo, however, they've flatlined.

Definition : Flatlined - fail to increase/decrease; remain static.

So why no affordable-housing crisis in Japan?A big factor, experts say, is the country's relatively deregulated housing policies, which have allowed housing supply to keep up with demand in the 21st century.

With no rent controlsand fewer restrictions on height and density,Tokyo appears to be a city where the market is under controlwhere supply is keeping home prices from rising as drastically as they have in many other major world cities.

"A reason why housing prices in Japan are not rising as fast as in New York, for example, is the large number of housingstarts," says Masahiro Kobayashi, a director general at the Japan Housing Finance Agency, a state-run entity which supports the housing market by purchasing home loans.

Over the past decade, Japan has consistently built almost 1 millionnew homes and apartments each year, according to official statistics. In the U.S., where the population is more than double Japan's, 1.25 million new homes were built in 2018.

Japan's home prices finished last year around the same level as they were nearly a decade ago, according to data from Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. In Tokyo, home prices finished 2018 around the same level as they were near the turn of the century.

Housing prices have been constrained in some parts of Japan due to anemic economic growth and population decline, said Mr. Kobayashi. But the price trend is the same in Tokyo, where the population is rising, he said.

In Tokyo last year, housing startscame in around 145,000, according to Japan's land ministry.Thisfigure is on par with the total number of new housing units authorized last year in New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Houston combined, based on the U.S. Census Bureau data. The same feat was achieved in 2017.

Rents also have barely moved.Last year the average rent for a two-bedroom unit in Tokyo wasslightly below $1,000 a montha figure that has remained virtually unchanged over the past decade, according to statistics from Japan's Real Estate Transaction Promotion Center,a nonprofit organization that provides industry research.

Japan's current level of housing supply is tied to a package of policy changesimplemented around the turn of the centurythat were aimed at restoring the profitability of Japan's land-development industry, according to Andre Sorensen, a professor of urban geography and a Japan housing expert at the University of Toronto Scarborough.

The Japanese government began relaxing regulations that had restricted supply, allowing taller and denser buildings in Japan's capital. Private consultants were given permission to issue building permits to speed up construction.

"This created something like a free-trade zone in Tokyo," Mr. Sorensen said.

Unfortunately for other countries wrangling with housing affordability crises, the Japanese formula is not easily exportable. Many of the cities where demand for housing is the stiffestNew York, London, San Francisco and Stockholm, for exampleimpose strict rules on land use and new construction, partly due to local political pressure.

But in Japan, the responsibility of regulating urban space largely shifted to the central government in 2002 under the Urban Renaissance policy. Mr. Sorensen said it had held at bay the "not in my backyard" movements that often inhibit housing construction in the U.S. through their influence over local governments.

Two of Japan's largest housing construction companies,Daiwa House Industry(Links to an external site.)

Co.andSekisui HouseLtd(Links to an external site.)

., both say that the easing of land and construction regulations has helped them build in Tokyo.The companiessay that deregulation has benefited them particularly in their ability to expand housing units by replacing low-rise residential complexes with much higher ones.

"A good environment for housing construction is being created," says Daiwa House managing executive officer Yoshinori Ariyoshi.

To deal with rising construction fees,Mr. Ariyoshi says Japan may have to rely more on prefabricated homes to provide affordable housing. He estimates that about 20% of the country's homes are already being assembled in increasingly automated factories.

Daiwa Houseiscollaborating with other construction companies to develop anew 1.5 million-square-foot "town" in Tokyo's center. Consisting of 24 buildings, "Harumi Flag" is slated for completion by 2024. It is expected to house some 12,000 people in 5,632 condominiums and apartments.

Some of Harumi Flag's residential towers offer ocean views from 50 floors above Tokyo Bay. The units are alsolikelyto be roomier than typical Tokyo condominiums.

Still, their prices are expected to be cheaper than those in the surrounding area given the "sheer amount of inventory in an already saturated area of Tokyo," said Adam German, the vice president of business development at Housing Japan. If they're not at market prices or even a bit below, "the units will have significant trouble selling," he said.

Question 1:This question focuses on Tokyo. Per the article, Tokyo does NOT have which economic price control?

Group of answer choices

price floor

quantity ceiling

price ceiling

quantity floor

2.This is for the Tokyo article above.

Let's say that Tokyo decides to apply the economic price control you've answered above. Utilizing the supply and demand model presented in class, please choose whether the market will have ashortageor asurplusof supply of housing units after this policy has been implemented.

Group of answer choices

this will create a shortage of housing units

this will create a surplus of housing units

3.This is for the Tokyo article above.

For this question, the market we will be using is the housing market in Tokyo. Per the article, the reason why thepricefor housing in Tokyo is pretty much unchanged is because as demand for housing increases then supply also increases. The question is, to keep the housingpriceunchanged, will supply of housing need to increase more, less, or the same as the increase in demand?

You would help if you draw this.

Group of answer choices

the supply of housing needs to increase less than the increase in demand.

the supply of housing needs to increase in the same proportion as the increase in demand.

the supply of housing needs to increase more than the increase in demand.