3 ms·
The price of housing is a self-generated problem?
by loteck 8y ago
The price of housing is a self-generated problem?
- tazard 8y agoIt is if you also get a new car, and can't properly afford either.
- TangoTrotFox 8y agoThe price of housing is a product of too many people wanting to live in too small an area. The huge salaries, probably driven in part by venture capital mardi gras, also certainly work to keep driving up prices. If somebody's willing to pay $4k a month for a modest place, then there will certainly be people willing to charge $4k a month for a modest place!
- Karrot_Kream 8y agoIn the case of the Bay Area, it's the case of building commercially zoned areas without residential units which can bear the capacity of the available jobs. Palo Alto is the poster child for having many more jobs than residential units.
- briandear 8y agoIs that true for PA? Seems like the whole town is nothing but neighborhoods. I suppose if you include Stanford in that calculation you could be right.
- Karrot_Kream 8y agoProblem is, most of PA is single-family homes, with strict height limits. This makes density artificially low (i.e. the infamous American "sprawl")
- samcheng 8y agoAccording to this 2013 study, the daytime population in Palo Alto is twice the residential population. http://www.paloaltoparksplan.org/pdf/PTOSR-Demographic-Analysis-September2014.pdf http://www.paloaltoparksplan.org/pdf/PTOSR-Demographic-Analy... It's pretty clear if you look at 'typical traffic' in Google Maps, particularly on Page Mill or Sand Hill Roads at 280.
- ericd 8y agoIt's not that it's too small an area yet, it's that higher density building is being hamstrung, which prevents housing from meeting demand. If I recall correctly, for every new housing unit that's been created over the last (I think 10) years, 9 jobs were added. It's incredibly low density for such a high priced area, with many tiny, single story ranch-style houses, but a sizable contingent of very noisy residents fight tooth and nail against increasing the density. In San Mateo, for example, there's a law on the books that prevents any new buildings above 55 feet, as well as any building with a floor area greater than 3x the land it sits in, which condemns the area to an average density of 3 stories or less, even in downtown, where there are some existing 150 foot+ buildings. That law is sunsetting in 2020, but there are already citizen groups agitating vigorously to get a renewal on the ballot, even as the current council was elected on a platform of more building. This would tie the hands of the council and prevent them from doing what they were elected to do.
- lern_too_spel 8y agoSalaries are low at VC-backed firms. Huge salaries are from companies with a lot of revenue.
- oculusthrift 8y agoactually kind of because no one is forcing you to live in the bay area (maybe less than 1 percent of people really have to stay in the area)