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There is a huge difference between affordable housing, and building "Affordable" housing. Rent regulation causes prices for unregulated units to increase dramat

by posguy 9y ago

There is a huge difference between affordable housing, and building "Affordable" housing. Rent regulation causes prices for unregulated units to increase dramatically (cross-subsidizing regulated units). Is it better to have 100 units at $1000 a month each, or 33 units at $600 and 67 at $1200? Why do we still have archaic zoning that forces worthless parking to be built (sub-$0.50sqft parking vs $3-4sqft housing)? Fixing this alone would cut $150 to $300 a month off rent in many complexes, as it is another massive cross-subsidy that goes markedly unused in newer buildings. Lets not even touch on how zoning in nearly every city blocks high density development in smart areas (eg. adjacent to mass transit) and causes medium to low density, super expensive slum to be built. Who really wants a $600k 2 bed/1 bath home when a similar condo would be less than half the price on the same land? TL;DR: Zoning is killing our cities and causing horrid price increases. Kill zoning, keep fire code, watch housing prices stabilize.

ido 9y ago
In Berlin basically all units are regulated (can't increase rent beyond inflation once you sign a contract, all contracts are indefinite by default and usually only breakable by the tenant, and only newly built units or such that have been renovated at a cost of more than a third of their entire value can be rented to new tenants at more than 10% above average current renting price for a comparable unit in the same neighborhood/comparable location). The result is that while purchase prices (which are unregulated) have continued to increase in line with the rate of increase in other desirable world cities, rent prices are increasing at a much lower rate - and they started relatively (compared to purchase price) low to begin with. Of course it's not a perfect system and i wish they'd cut down on the burocracy to enable building more units faster, but it did show an effect.
sokoloff 9y ago
> Who really wants a $600k 2 bed/1 bath home when a similar condo would be less than half the price on the same land? I do. So I bought a place with a similar "you 'overpaid this much' ratio". Why? So we could live in (/on the edge of) Cambridge and have a small yard for my kids and dog to play in, have BBQs, grow plants and flowers, have a driveway/garage, a basement for projects and tinkering, etc. It quite literally means that I will have to work 5-8 years longer before retirement to afford the excess we paid over a condo in a similar neighborhood. To me, that tradeoff (which is enormous - 12-20% of my prime adult years) is worth it.

by posguy 9y ago

ido 9y ago

In Berlin basically all units are regulated (can't increase rent beyond inflation once you sign a contract, all contracts are indefinite by default and usually only breakable by the tenant, and only newly built units or such that have been renovated at a cost of more than a third of their entire value can be rented to new tenants at more than 10% above average current renting price for a comparable unit in the same neighborhood/comparable location). The result is that while purchase prices (which are unregulated) have continued to increase in line with the rate of increase in other desirable world cities, rent prices are increasing at a much lower rate - and they started relatively (compared to purchase price) low to begin with. Of course it's not a perfect system and i wish they'd cut down on the burocracy to enable building more units faster, but it did show an effect.

sokoloff 9y ago

> Who really wants a $600k 2 bed/1 bath home when a similar condo would be less than half the price on the same land? I do. So I bought a place with a similar "you 'overpaid this much' ratio". Why? So we could live in (/on the edge of) Cambridge and have a small yard for my kids and dog to play in, have BBQs, grow plants and flowers, have a driveway/garage, a basement for projects and tinkering, etc. It quite literally means that I will have to work 5-8 years longer before retirement to afford the excess we paid over a condo in a similar neighborhood. To me, that tradeoff (which is enormous - 12-20% of my prime adult years) is worth it.