3 ms·

I agree that $105,000 is too high for the area from a cost point of view, but when compared to California’s affordable housing up front capital cost, it looks m

I agree that $105,000 is too high for the area from a cost point of view, but when compared to California’s affordable housing up front capital cost, it looks much more promising ($1 million per unit in this, extreme but unfortunately not too extreme for this state, case): https://www.bisnow.com/los-angeles/news/affordable-housing/affordable-housing-in-california-could-cost-1m-per-unit-according-to-la-times-study-103838#ath https://www.bisnow.com/los-angeles/news/affordable-housing/a... At that rate, Houston metro could get 100 homes for the same price it takes to produce 10 affordable homes in the San Diego metro area!

cat199 7y ago
no expert in the topic, but this comparison is only meaningful if compared to the local cost per unit of raw land - land prices in SD metro are probably way higher, esp. compared to this particular part of houston won't try to categorize - take a streetview tour: https://goo.gl/maps/9sEyR9YRRR2EDFND8 https://goo.gl/maps/9sEyR9YRRR2EDFND8 what is clear is that this area is mostly empty fields or pretty poor, with vastly more expensive gentrifying houses popping up in the greenspace. a large area land trust can buy large chunks, preventing speculation on the greenspace from completely removing the existing community subsequently, since community members are part of the trust, they would defacto own all of the local land, guarding against future speculation and ensuring a like-minded voting block w/r/t local property tax policy (which is huge in TX and in practice what serves as the state income tax) so to me the topic is basically like rent control for real estate. whether or not this is the state's business is another topic - interesting that our free market, 'classless' republic is in effect building up a hereditary landowning class though.
- imtringued 7y ago
  I'm not sure how this is rent control for real estate. The policy only applies to land that the government owns.

cat199 7y ago

no expert in the topic, but this comparison is only meaningful if compared to the local cost per unit of raw land - land prices in SD metro are probably way higher, esp. compared to this particular part of houston won't try to categorize - take a streetview tour: https://goo.gl/maps/9sEyR9YRRR2EDFND8 https://goo.gl/maps/9sEyR9YRRR2EDFND8 what is clear is that this area is mostly empty fields or pretty poor, with vastly more expensive gentrifying houses popping up in the greenspace. a large area land trust can buy large chunks, preventing speculation on the greenspace from completely removing the existing community subsequently, since community members are part of the trust, they would defacto own all of the local land, guarding against future speculation and ensuring a like-minded voting block w/r/t local property tax policy (which is huge in TX and in practice what serves as the state income tax) so to me the topic is basically like rent control for real estate. whether or not this is the state's business is another topic - interesting that our free market, 'classless' republic is in effect building up a hereditary landowning class though.

imtringued 7y ago
I'm not sure how this is rent control for real estate. The policy only applies to land that the government owns.