7 ms·
Is it that building housing doesn’t work? Or is it that building housing doesn’t work unless you build enough of it quickly enough? Doing better than SF at bui
by gshdg 7y ago
Is it that building housing doesn’t work? Or is it that building housing doesn’t work unless you build enough of it quickly enough?
Doing better than SF at building housing is a pretty low bar. I see no evidence that the high-demand cities that are building more housing are building it at a rate that keeps up with demand. As it is, what housing they are building is probably helping keep rent prices rising gradually instead of spiraling out of control as they are in SF.
- nerdponx 7y agoOr, as is the case in New York, building only luxury housing targeted at attracting wealthy out-of-towners (either people moving in from the suburbs or people moving from far away for tech jobs), which does little to alleviate the problems in other socieconomic strata.
- yason 7y agoHigh-demand cities building more have a positive problem, but it's a real problem despite the sign. The cities now housing more people now also support more economic activity, jobs, and development which makes the job markets even better, brings in more interesting opportunities and thus even higher demand. It becomes a more attractive place despite the housing shortage, and thus the demand grows even higher despite the supply growing as well.
- sandworm101 7y agoIf the wrong people (investors rather than residents) are buying the houses then building more may only stoke a bubble. The demand for housing covers both people who need a place to live and the countless other reasons people buy houses (an apartments/condos etc). They are a place to invest or park money. So when a bringing more supply online you have to be careful that it targets the correct demand.
- cgag 7y agoHow does building more of it ever make it more attractive as an investment?
- gshdg 7y agoPer the article, only a vanishingly small fraction of these are remaining unoccupied. Even if they’re not being inhabited by the purchaser they’re being inhabited, and thus absorbing some of the local demand for housing.
- sandworm101 7y agoI would require more information as to the definition of "occupied". I used to live in Vancouver, a city struggling with that definition. Unless you are willing to send unannounced inspectors it is very difficult to determine whether the owner is actually living in an apartment. In most cities "occupied" simply means owned by an individual. Whether that person actually resides in the unit is another matter. Take a look at this pic to see vancouver's problem: https://images.app.goo.gl/uGmMJcwyNvXQUWdQ6 https://images.app.goo.gl/uGmMJcwyNvXQUWdQ6 What do you think the real occupancy rate is of those buildings? 60? 70% at best? (They are all residential except for the few commercial ones, those with entire floors lit.)
- gshdg 7y agoOr if that’s 4:30pm in December it could easily be that everyone’s still at work even though it’s dark out. That might not be the case here, but maybe worth considering.
- wrs 7y agoNote his hypothesis that condos are the core of the problem -- they aren't rented, they're purchased with credit by young professionals who "spend the creditworthiness" they gained by moving to a creative-class city, and live in them until they sell them to other incoming young professionals. There could be plenty of rental demand that isn't affected by building lots of dense primary-residence condos that just attract more of the same. He does wonder at the end what would happen if you built so much housing that you broke that cycle, but that would be hard. Basically he's saying there are two tiers of housing consumers, and building dense condos does nothing at all for the lower tier who can never bridge the creditworthiness gap to get into them.
- com2kid 7y agoMost new housing I see around me (Seattle Area) is apartments for rent. Various legal reasons in WA state for it, but I'm of the opinion that having everyone rent is worse long term for society than having people become part of the local community. Of course time will tell.
- iamtheworstdev 7y agoOn the other hand if everyone is bound to a mortgage then they are handcuffed to an area.
- sokoloff 7y agoFor everyone who was renting and decides to buy a dense condo surely opens up a rental unit for someone who can't afford or chooses not to buy.
- Animats 7y agoThis is only a problem in a few cities. The median house price in Cleveland, OH, is $53,000.