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> I kind of don't feel like we can afford to. The housing price increases since 2020 have an atrocious human cost. These rising costs of living are not sustaina
by ajmurmann 6y ago
> I kind of don't feel like we can afford to. The housing price increases since 2020 have an atrocious human cost. These rising costs of living are not sustainable. There are some good (tech) jobs that compensate sufficiently for this type of development to work... but no where near enough. On a macroeconomics sense, I'm inclined to think it just doesn't work at all.
The costs are rising because there is demand to move to cities, but we aren't increasing density. In most cities zoning and arduous permit processes are making building downright impossible. The lack of real density is driving the cost problem
- AlanSE 6y agoAh yes, the old single family housing issue. I painfully remember a moment from the 2020 election cycle where CPAC or something had someone, amid much other nonsense, framed Democratic opposition to single-family zoning as ruining our way of life. This is, of course, while 90% of zoning is single-family. It's not just urban areas that need (at minimum) some zoning diversity. I don't know what the most cost effective density for construction is, but I know that in the US laws have prevented the market from realizing that optimum. Maybe 6 floor buildings provide the most floor space for the construction cost. Maybe it's 4. With the cost of housing being what it is, I feel like we can't afford to build at density either lower or higher than the optimum.. at least for the median economic persona.
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 6y agoI mean, we don't need to figure out the right height of buildings or the right way to zone specific areas, we just need to remove restrictions and let the market figure it out. Just let people build stuff on the land they own, and the out-of-control rent spirals will eventually stop when there's enough housing.