Liberal cities are more expensive, but the relation to liberalism isn't known yet

The Atlantic - Why middle-class Americans can't afford to live in liberal cities

There is some evidence that cities with more liberals have worse income inequality and higher real estate prices. It seems that this is so in aggregate, since some conservative cities also have high real estate prices as well. So overall, there are higher average per square foot prices in more liberal cities than conservative ones, with the politics being measured by margin of victory in Romney vs Obama. In California, a 2010 study found that more liberal cities issued fewer new housing permits. However, it is difficult to pick apart the politics from historical or geographic reasons: in Texas, for instance, where land is flatter and cities aren't constrained by geography in their expansion, more real estate, and hence more affordable housing, is easier to come by than, perhaps, cities within peninsulas or on mountain slopes. The definitive causes remain unknown, and researchers offer different reasons: liberals might be more concerned about environmental impacts of development, or perhaps want to apply "historic preservation" more than market-driven conservatives would.