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The trick is: * Introduce laws that make it harder to (legally) build housing. Note that much of New York would be illegal to build today, for instance. * Use
by CalRobert 7y ago
The trick is:
* Introduce laws that make it harder to (legally) build housing. Note that much of New York would be illegal to build today, for instance.
* Use these laws to create scarcity. Ensure that there's never quite as much housing as people who need homes.
* Make massive amounts of debt available for said housing.
You now have an entire class of people who want to be sure their house only goes up in price, and that there is only just barely enough housing built to stop their region from collapsing. After all, who wants to be underwater on a mortgage?
I don't know how to break this on a policy level. Few people vote for the politician who says "I want your house to go down in price" so we get insane levels of rube-goldberg devices to make housing "more affordable" while also making it ever more expensive.
The more debt you make available, the more housing soaks it up. Sweden recently made the maximum mortgage length 105 years!
On the bright side, if you look at stuff that no bank will lend on (dilapidated structures, etc) there are some good deals to be had.
- segmondy 7y agoAre you American? because that's the most anti American thing.
- shusson 7y ago> I don't know how to break this on a policy level. Berlin plans to freeze rent prices for 5 years in March [1]. But who knows, maybe that will push up prices long term. [1] https://www.ft.com/content/f2f1354e-30a8-11ea-9703-eea0cae3f0de https://www.ft.com/content/f2f1354e-30a8-11ea-9703-eea0cae3f...
- rb808 7y agoSurely you're missing something about having highest paying jobs concentrated in a few cities where lots of people want to move to. Most of American has cheap housing, just many people would rather move to the most expensive places (which is why they're expensive).
- shitpostbot 7y agoI think you've got your cart before your horse
- rjbwork 7y agoThis is a culture issue too. So much of work today that takes place in big cities can easily be done from home, but companies and managers are still stuck in a 20th century "butts in seats" mentality.
- psv1 7y ago> So much of work today that takes place in big cities can easily be done from home Not all that much - not everyone works in software, and not everyone who does will be most productive from home, and not every one of those will want to work from home. My work can be done from home and my employer is quite flexible - I still gladly spend the time and pay for my commute because I'd rather not be at home all day.
- ghaff 7y agoI had a discussion with some people at a growing tech company looking to expand in one of their locations. I basically asked-/Cant more people just work from home? (Many already do.) they basically told me many of the younger employees would just up and quit if they couldn’t come into an office. Looking back on my earlier career I can sympathize.
- mixmastamyk 7y agoPerhaps let the portion work from home that wanted to.
- 3fe9a03ccd14ca5 7y ago> Introduce laws that make it harder to (legally) build housing. Note that much of New York would be illegal to build today, for instance. This really, really bothers me. The fact that we let our elected officials blame everybody else except them is part of the problem. They’re interesting in preserving their power (via ask-first permitting and other laws and red tape). They’re not at ALL interested in increasing the supply of housing. Don’t believe them and vote out every single one that lies to you.
- triceratops 7y ago> The fact that we let our elected officials blame everybody else except them is part of the problem. The fact that they're "elected" should be a clue as to why they act the way they do. They believe (rightly or wrongly) that acting any other way will lose them the next election.
- dep_b 7y agoOne of the princes in Holland has over 500 properties in Amsterdam, fat chance anybody would propose something that would hurt that investment.
- throwawayhhakdl 7y ago> to make housing "more affordable" while also making it ever more expensive. This is a simple but excellent way of putting it
- pif 7y ago> I don't know how to break this on a policy level. Let's just stop flocking to overpriced places. It's that simple!
- reroute1 7y agoThey are highly priced for a reason... because of the demand of people wanting to live there, so no it's not really that simple.
- CydeWeys 7y agoExactly. I moved to Manhattan to work for Google. Housing is much more expensive here than where I came from but it was absolutely worth it.
- reroute1 7y agoSame here, I have an apt which is 30 min commute from downtown chicago and pay highly for it. But to me it's worth it over having a very long commute or finding a different job. Opportunities outside of the city are much more limited.
- mrep 7y agoChicago has got the metra though which goes out to the burbs. I grew up about 20 miles outside of downtown in the burbs and the rush hour metra would get you downtown in half an hour.
- reroute1 7y agoThat's true, but there are other tradeoffs with living in the suburbs. I don't have a car and get along fine in the city with public transportation, plus the benefits of the city for a single young professional outweigh the suburbs in my personal opinion. Again it is highly priced, but it's also high in demand and for me it's worth it.
- pastor_elm 7y agoOr...just let the free market create sprawl and reap the rewards of it reducing free space as population naturally grows. No government conspiracy needed.
- zip1234 7y agoThe free market is not what is creating sprawl. Sprawl is created by policy effectively outlawing anything but cars. Also, cars are convenient when everything is designed for them and pretty much them alone.
- Tilian 7y agoWhich modes of transport are explicitly being outlawed?
- zip1234 7y agoNot explicitly outlawed. However, cars are favored over everything. An example: when it snows, giant plow trucks come and clear the roads but the snow gets pushed to the side often covering the sidewalks so nobody can walk unless they walk in the road. Jaywalking is considered a crime in many places since the road is only for cars. Spending on infrastructure meaning 98% for cars and 2% for everything else. Scooters/lighter vehicles/bikes could be a bigger way to get around but made more dangerous and less practical because all of the money for transport is spent on cars and roads are often designed just to make cars go faster at the expense of everything else.
- scarejunba 7y agoImagine a city where specialized roads exist for last mile mobility like electric scooters etc., Where one parking spot per block is scooter/bike. Instead there are regulations on how many shared scooters can exist in a city, how many bike shares, etc. There is a minimal critical mass to enabling them to be effective and we're not at it because laws.
- lotsofpulp 7y agoAny place that outlaws large apartment or condominium buildings is effectively outlawing public transportation, as there simply won't be a sufficient tax base to support it, nor will the distances between places be close enough to make the public transportation effective to use.
- arminiusreturns 7y agoYou forgot one step: wait till a market crash and use your available liquidity to further dominate market.
- skizm 7y agoI agree with most of your points, but I think the root of this problem is that most people will literally take out as much money as banks will approve them for. Once they lock in their mortgage and home, they'll fight for laws that keep the price of their homes high, even if that means artificially limiting the supply, or enacting zoning laws so no one can build buildings that might block their view, etc.
- ChuckNorris89 7y agoYep. This "fuck you, I got mine, now get yours" mentality coupled with NIMBYism is definitely one reason we'll never get affordable housing.
- mrec 7y ago> Few people vote for the politician who says "I want your house to go down in price" A fair few might go for one who says "I want your kids to be able to afford a place of their own someday", though.
- jgalt212 7y agotrue. many folks vote for Green candidates for similar reasons.
- growlist 7y agoLet's not forget the impact of immigration pushing up prices.
- TuringNYC 7y agoGreat list, plus the part about it being tax advantageous.