2 ms·
This is not accurate analysis. Perhaps most important is to understand that zoning and open ended environmental review has added huge costs and risks to buildi
by m0llusk 6y ago
This is not accurate analysis.
Perhaps most important is to understand that zoning and open ended environmental review has added huge costs and risks to building and has effectively slowed construction. This is the primary reason that there are not enough units and most other problems we see emerge from this. There are important other factors such as the financialization of housing creating a situation where demand is essentially infinite and relates only to investors and not to families or income from labor.
As far as affordable housing goes, the majority of affordable housing is in older buildings. As buildings mature they tend to get paid off and reach a point where operating costs remain low until the structure needs to be rebuilt or replaced. This may be awkward to model, but realistic observation of markets shows that affordability is something that more or less inevitably happens to a property unless it gets removed or rebuilt relatively early in its lifetime because of a hot market.
Property values are traditionally supported by incomes. The current environment where property values grow well beyond incomes has little precedent and there is little reason to think this situation is stable. When people in the past talked about their property not losing value what they meant that there would be both income opportunities and reason to live in the area. When opportunities dried up or communities became undesirable then the housing values would crash. That is entirely different from expecting housing values should increase beyond incomes or inflation.