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Re: 2. I've heard there's a huge surplus of vacant/dilapidated homes selling for a dollar in the rust belt. Is it really a problem of housing supply, or lack of

Re: 2. I've heard there's a huge surplus of vacant/dilapidated homes selling for a dollar in the rust belt. Is it really a problem of housing supply, or lack of demand, i.e. desire to live in, well, undesirable locations? I find it hard to believe it's an economic matter of not meeting a certain low-cost customer segment of demand if all these empty houses are sitting around. The deeper issue may be structural unemployment, which isn't going to get any better.

DoreenMichele 7y ago
While homeless, I looked into getting a dollar home. They all had a minimum of several hundred dollars in closing costs. They typically also had very expensive defects, such as fire damage or flood damage and black mold because of it. In recent decades, we've torn down around a million SROs. In the 1950s, the average new house was about 1200 sqft and held about 3.5 people. Today, it's over 2400 sqft and holds about 2.5 people. We've largely zoned out of existence the creation of small homes in walking distance of amenities, like jobs and shopping. A car is practically a requirement to make life work for most Americans. For most Americans, housing is their biggest expense and a car is their second biggest. I've lived without a car for over a decade. If I had to buy a car to access affordable housing, that would substantially cut into my housing budget. It just made more sense to find housing in a walkable community to make my life work.
- sooheon 7y ago
  Won't argue with you on the point about car obsession--cities prioritizing cars over humans is a clear problem. I'd like to understand the incentives better--if SROs work well to put roofs over homeless, and lead to some level of economic activity where there would have been just unfulfilled need (all seem like big wins), what are the countervailing forces that prevent this from happening?
  - DoreenMichele 7y ago
    We've largely zoned them out of existence. I think this is strongly influenced by housing policies post-WW2 that helped create modern suburbs. In a nutshell, Americans have a mental model of "proper housing" as housing designed for a fairly upper class nuclear family. We had a fairly high percentage of such just after WW2. Since then, our demographics have diversified away from that, but our housing stock has narrowed towards even more of that. I'm hoping to figure out how to reverse that trend. https://americanhomeworks.blogspot.com/2019/07/modern-american-suburbs.html https://americanhomeworks.blogspot.com/2019/07/modern-americ... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_room_occupancy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_room_occupancy
4ntonius8lock 7y ago
Housing in places without jobs is not really housing, it's a structure. Here in SoCal there are 'free' abandoned houses out in the middle of the desert. Hours from the nearest service station or employment. Even just getting in and out of them requires dozens of dollars in gasoline.
- sooheon 7y ago
  > Housing in places without jobs is not really housing, it's a structure. Great way to put what I was trying to say. Another way to think of it is that there are tons of abandoned houses due to lack of opportunity, but no jobs left unfilled purely for lack of housing. The problem isn't that there isn't enough housing, the problem is there aren't enough jobs.

DoreenMichele 7y ago

While homeless, I looked into getting a dollar home. They all had a minimum of several hundred dollars in closing costs. They typically also had very expensive defects, such as fire damage or flood damage and black mold because of it. In recent decades, we've torn down around a million SROs. In the 1950s, the average new house was about 1200 sqft and held about 3.5 people. Today, it's over 2400 sqft and holds about 2.5 people. We've largely zoned out of existence the creation of small homes in walking distance of amenities, like jobs and shopping. A car is practically a requirement to make life work for most Americans. For most Americans, housing is their biggest expense and a car is their second biggest. I've lived without a car for over a decade. If I had to buy a car to access affordable housing, that would substantially cut into my housing budget. It just made more sense to find housing in a walkable community to make my life work.

sooheon 7y ago
Won't argue with you on the point about car obsession--cities prioritizing cars over humans is a clear problem. I'd like to understand the incentives better--if SROs work well to put roofs over homeless, and lead to some level of economic activity where there would have been just unfulfilled need (all seem like big wins), what are the countervailing forces that prevent this from happening?
- DoreenMichele 7y ago
  We've largely zoned them out of existence. I think this is strongly influenced by housing policies post-WW2 that helped create modern suburbs. In a nutshell, Americans have a mental model of "proper housing" as housing designed for a fairly upper class nuclear family. We had a fairly high percentage of such just after WW2. Since then, our demographics have diversified away from that, but our housing stock has narrowed towards even more of that. I'm hoping to figure out how to reverse that trend. https://americanhomeworks.blogspot.com/2019/07/modern-american-suburbs.html https://americanhomeworks.blogspot.com/2019/07/modern-americ... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_room_occupancy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_room_occupancy

4ntonius8lock 7y ago

Housing in places without jobs is not really housing, it's a structure. Here in SoCal there are 'free' abandoned houses out in the middle of the desert. Hours from the nearest service station or employment. Even just getting in and out of them requires dozens of dollars in gasoline.

sooheon 7y ago
> Housing in places without jobs is not really housing, it's a structure. Great way to put what I was trying to say. Another way to think of it is that there are tons of abandoned houses due to lack of opportunity, but no jobs left unfilled purely for lack of housing. The problem isn't that there isn't enough housing, the problem is there aren't enough jobs.