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> All of America’s institutions are focused exclusively on churn. Crank out new stuff, sell it fast, cash out, and move on to the next project. Blighted neighbo

by D13Fd 5y ago

> All of America’s institutions are focused exclusively on churn. Crank out new stuff, sell it fast, cash out, and move on to the next project. Blighted neighborhoods aren’t an accident. They’re baked in to every facet of how we do everything. I'm surprised there isn't more pushback here about the author's central premise, which is very flawed in my view. I've never found what he is saying to be true at all, even in the real estate market. I live in a 40-year-old house that I bought 5 years ago, and its value has only increased. Before that I lived in another 40-year-old house in a thriving and busy market. Some of the most expensive places to live in my area date to the 1930's-1960's - I know, because my realtor showed them to me last time we moved. The author states that this is some kind of universal truth about America, but it's not.

endisneigh 5y ago
> I've never found what he is saying to be true at all, even in the real estate market. I live in a 40-year-old house that I bought 5 years ago, and its value has only increased. Before that I lived in another 40-year-old house in a thriving and busy market. Some of the most expensive places to live in my area date to the 1930's-1960's - I know, because my realtor showed them to me last time we moved. There's no contradiction between an area being blighted and expensive. I've seen incredibly crappy neighborhoods in Boston, Chicago, Dallas and New York that were extremely expensive and clearly was in need of work.
- D13Fd 5y ago
  > There's no contradiction between an area being blighted and expensive. I'm not sure what kind of "blight" you are talking about, but the author was focused on real estate values for older locations being very low: >Half the original structures were so devalued that they were torn down and replaced with surface parking lots >The building had been on the market for a very long time with no bids. It eventually sold a few months ago for $65,000. For comparison, here’s a review of a $65,000 luxury 2021 Ram pickup truck. Yeah, if you define "blight" as "I don't like how the place looks," then there are probably a lot of "extremely expensive" places that are "blighted." But I don't think that's what the author was talking about.
charles_f 5y ago
I'm in Canada so with a grain of salt. My house is 45y old, and it was a cheap house to begin with. All the maintenance is done, roof replaced, stucco redone, we've done renos, elec is up to code. However when you look at the yearly appraisal, the house value keeps dropping year by year. They add a little line here and there to keep into account the renos done in the last 5 years. The only thing that grows is land value, which more than makes up for the house. I can totally see that were we not in a pressured market, value would go done; and America is not at a saturation point where land is a big concern as a rule.
- D13Fd 5y ago
  Do they break out the value of the home vs. the land in your jurisdiction? Here we just get an appraisal.
  - charles_f 5y ago
    Yeah, and everything is public on bcassessment.ca
  - mikestew 5y ago
    "Here" where? In WA it's broken out by house/land appraisal. For King County (which includes Seattle), see for yourself with the parcel viewer: https://gismaps.kingcounty.gov/parcelviewer2/ https://gismaps.kingcounty.gov/parcelviewer2/
pard68 5y ago
My previous house was built in 1902. It had lots of issues. We lived in it for almost six years, loved the place and its character. I sold it for 50% more than I bought it. It never made it on the market before the contract was signed.
epivosism 5y ago
Maybe he's being inaccurately hyperbolic by saying "all" and "exclusively". I'd agree that your disagreement there is reasonable. But I wonder, if he said "90% of our institutions" instead, how would you feel about his claims? It seems that core areas sometimes go the way you're describing, but no peripheral areas do, and we're building a lot more of them, but no more cores.
porknubbins 5y ago
I agree with you, taking rural Wisconsin as somehow exemplary, I think the author is really just observing the 80 year slow decline of small town America. I live in a bigger metro of around 1M and though we have never succeeded in bringing downtown back to what it was there are at least 4 distinct layers of neighborhoods- the 1900s streetcar neighborhoods, the postwar suburbs, the 80s developments, and the contemporary (post 2000) redevelopment of the postwar areas. These areas are all being bought up and rennovated rapidly. I would have loved to restore an old bungalow type house but they essentially all are rennovated and sell for a much higher price. There was a lot of development of suburbs and exburbs around the 2000s that has virtually come to a halt. Its all infill developmemt and rennovation now. I live in a 50s house and my sister in a 1910s house and both are fine.

by D13Fd 5y ago

endisneigh 5y ago

> I've never found what he is saying to be true at all, even in the real estate market. I live in a 40-year-old house that I bought 5 years ago, and its value has only increased. Before that I lived in another 40-year-old house in a thriving and busy market. Some of the most expensive places to live in my area date to the 1930's-1960's - I know, because my realtor showed them to me last time we moved. There's no contradiction between an area being blighted and expensive. I've seen incredibly crappy neighborhoods in Boston, Chicago, Dallas and New York that were extremely expensive and clearly was in need of work.

D13Fd 5y ago
> There's no contradiction between an area being blighted and expensive. I'm not sure what kind of "blight" you are talking about, but the author was focused on real estate values for older locations being very low: >Half the original structures were so devalued that they were torn down and replaced with surface parking lots >The building had been on the market for a very long time with no bids. It eventually sold a few months ago for $65,000. For comparison, here’s a review of a $65,000 luxury 2021 Ram pickup truck. Yeah, if you define "blight" as "I don't like how the place looks," then there are probably a lot of "extremely expensive" places that are "blighted." But I don't think that's what the author was talking about.

charles_f 5y ago

I'm in Canada so with a grain of salt. My house is 45y old, and it was a cheap house to begin with. All the maintenance is done, roof replaced, stucco redone, we've done renos, elec is up to code. However when you look at the yearly appraisal, the house value keeps dropping year by year. They add a little line here and there to keep into account the renos done in the last 5 years. The only thing that grows is land value, which more than makes up for the house. I can totally see that were we not in a pressured market, value would go done; and America is not at a saturation point where land is a big concern as a rule.

D13Fd 5y ago
Do they break out the value of the home vs. the land in your jurisdiction? Here we just get an appraisal.
- charles_f 5y ago
  Yeah, and everything is public on bcassessment.ca
- mikestew 5y ago
  "Here" where? In WA it's broken out by house/land appraisal. For King County (which includes Seattle), see for yourself with the parcel viewer: https://gismaps.kingcounty.gov/parcelviewer2/ https://gismaps.kingcounty.gov/parcelviewer2/

pard68 5y ago

My previous house was built in 1902. It had lots of issues. We lived in it for almost six years, loved the place and its character. I sold it for 50% more than I bought it. It never made it on the market before the contract was signed.

epivosism 5y ago

Maybe he's being inaccurately hyperbolic by saying "all" and "exclusively". I'd agree that your disagreement there is reasonable. But I wonder, if he said "90% of our institutions" instead, how would you feel about his claims? It seems that core areas sometimes go the way you're describing, but no peripheral areas do, and we're building a lot more of them, but no more cores.

porknubbins 5y ago

I agree with you, taking rural Wisconsin as somehow exemplary, I think the author is really just observing the 80 year slow decline of small town America. I live in a bigger metro of around 1M and though we have never succeeded in bringing downtown back to what it was there are at least 4 distinct layers of neighborhoods- the 1900s streetcar neighborhoods, the postwar suburbs, the 80s developments, and the contemporary (post 2000) redevelopment of the postwar areas. These areas are all being bought up and rennovated rapidly. I would have loved to restore an old bungalow type house but they essentially all are rennovated and sell for a much higher price. There was a lot of development of suburbs and exburbs around the 2000s that has virtually come to a halt. Its all infill developmemt and rennovation now. I live in a 50s house and my sister in a 1910s house and both are fine.