There’s always something to howl about.

Overnight News: Why would home-buyers choose a neighborhood with fewer trees? To get more house, of course.

Ya think it's easy?

“Foliage in abandoned neighborhoods is never in short supply.”

Here’s a fun real estate analysis exercise, one you’re unlikely to see anywhere else:

If a neighborhood has a very high ChaosScore™, will it have better or worse tree coverage than one with a low score?

We don’t have to measure chaos. HUD keeps track of rental housing. Will a community that is 75% renters have better foliage than one that is 25% renters?

Wicked easy, ain’t it? The renter analysis is actually better for understanding tree coverage – which is also racist, lesser minds argue. Trees are expensive, high-maintenance amenities, so all the reasons that make homeowners better about upkeep generally make them better about landscaping, too.

So again, not racism but location, location, location. If you prize wildlife, you pay with a longer commute. If you crave tree-lined streets with rolling lawns, you settle for less house for more money. If you want a lot of house for the least money – either as a homeowner or an investor – you buy where the renters are many and the trees are few.

Everything in economics is a trade-off. You could argue that the tenants in a treeless neighborhood have no better choices. The owners all do. Each one chose the home he bought according to his own hierarchy of values, weighing each material consideration by his own scale. If the home he bought does not yet correspond to his dreams, by fix-up or move-up, someday it can.

In other news:

The New York Post: Long Island man dodges eviction for 20 years, living in house he doesn’t own.

American Thinker: The shifting human tide.

The American Spectator: Florida: The Emerging Super State.

Townhall: Biden’s New Death Tax.

Politico: Some kids never logged on to remote school. Now what?