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Francis Cianfrocca joins Ben Domenech for the Friday, September 4th edition of Coffee & Markets, a series of brief morning podcasts on politics and the marketplace.

Today’s podcast focuses on why you’d ever want a Cadillac, and what the housing-market collapse has done in the hardest-hit areas in the country — specifically, suburban California. Are suburbs really halving in value? What are the societal ramifications of it not making economic sense to live in suburbs?

Items discussed include The Atlantic on the American Murder Mystery, and this email from a listener:

The overwhelming majority of the data here shows the truth: that the neighborhood at large has been basically halved in value, with our own home sadly typical. About a year ago, we tipped to majority-rental, and we’re about even in population with the Section 8 recipients across the drainage canal. (The neighborhood master plan was for them to be a maximum of 15% of population.) This month, we had our first armed robbery, with a group of men waiting for a homeowner to enter her front door, at which point they put a gun to her chest and took what they wanted — much easier than breaking in. Politically, the transformation of California’s suburbs like this is one of many things that will generate a revolt next year.