5 ms·

The dominant factor making US cities expensive to live in is that they ban housing construction. Legalizing a healthy housing supply would improve this country

The dominant factor making US cities expensive to live in is that they ban housing construction. Legalizing a healthy housing supply would improve this country more than anything I can think of.

beerandt 5y ago
Then we should repeal the majority of Dodd-Frank.
- BurningFrog 5y ago
  Repealing zoning is the more common answer :) What in Dodd-Frank stops housing construction?
  - beerandt 5y ago
    It makes financing single family homes near impossible for speculative builders. Builders need to find a buyer to do the financing before construction can start. Actually it makes private financing difficult for all builders, but then it created easier programs through hud to finance section 8 multi family apartments. Which is why you see crappy apartments being built at a faster rate than cookie cutter homes were being built in 2007. Zoning is part of it as well, but zoning on its own does nothing if people can't get financing to build. And a large majority of the population will only buy what's already built, and won't finance new construction on their own.
    - BurningFrog 5y ago
      Thanks. Hadn't heard about that before.
    - Ericson2314 5y ago
      > Which is why you see crappy apartments being built at a faster rate than cookie cutter homes were being built in 2007. I wish this were true!
- mistrial9 5y ago
  from Wikipedia -- In 2017, Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen stated that "the balance of research suggests that the core reforms we have put in place have substantially boosted resilience without unduly limiting credit availability or economic growth." Some critics have argued that the law had a negative impact on economic growth and small banks,[8] or failed to provide adequate regulation to the financial industry.[9] Many Republicans have called for the partial or total repeal of the law.[10][11][12]
jimbob45 5y ago
There are enough houses to house everyone in the US. The problem is that half of them are for rent which enriches one person off the dime of another. We don’t need more houses unless we want to continue wrecking the environment. Better to block renting and use what we have.
- Ericson2314 5y ago
  Homeownership is stupid speculation which makes things unaffordable. Single family homes also prevent density. We could have a "condo economy" but there's no good reason to. More broadly, the problem isn't rent, but landlords. Rent is fine, it's when rent feeds into rentiers that the bad extraction happens. The solution is to make it "rent all the way up". For example, do a maximal land value tax where the "tax" is so high it eats up the value of the land...and thus becomes rent. The rent goes to the state, and much of it is distributed as a dividend back to the people. That completes the loop, rent all the way around. All flows, no stocks.

The dominant factor making US cities expensive to live in is that they ban housing construction. Legalizing a healthy housing supply would improve this country more than anything I can think of.

beerandt 5y ago

Then we should repeal the majority of Dodd-Frank.

BurningFrog 5y ago
Repealing zoning is the more common answer :) What in Dodd-Frank stops housing construction?
- beerandt 5y ago
  It makes financing single family homes near impossible for speculative builders. Builders need to find a buyer to do the financing before construction can start. Actually it makes private financing difficult for all builders, but then it created easier programs through hud to finance section 8 multi family apartments. Which is why you see crappy apartments being built at a faster rate than cookie cutter homes were being built in 2007. Zoning is part of it as well, but zoning on its own does nothing if people can't get financing to build. And a large majority of the population will only buy what's already built, and won't finance new construction on their own.
  - BurningFrog 5y ago
    Thanks. Hadn't heard about that before.
  - Ericson2314 5y ago
    > Which is why you see crappy apartments being built at a faster rate than cookie cutter homes were being built in 2007. I wish this were true!
mistrial9 5y ago
from Wikipedia -- In 2017, Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen stated that "the balance of research suggests that the core reforms we have put in place have substantially boosted resilience without unduly limiting credit availability or economic growth." Some critics have argued that the law had a negative impact on economic growth and small banks,[8] or failed to provide adequate regulation to the financial industry.[9] Many Republicans have called for the partial or total repeal of the law.[10][11][12]

jimbob45 5y ago

There are enough houses to house everyone in the US. The problem is that half of them are for rent which enriches one person off the dime of another. We don’t need more houses unless we want to continue wrecking the environment. Better to block renting and use what we have.

Ericson2314 5y ago
Homeownership is stupid speculation which makes things unaffordable. Single family homes also prevent density. We could have a "condo economy" but there's no good reason to. More broadly, the problem isn't rent, but landlords. Rent is fine, it's when rent feeds into rentiers that the bad extraction happens. The solution is to make it "rent all the way up". For example, do a maximal land value tax where the "tax" is so high it eats up the value of the land...and thus becomes rent. The rent goes to the state, and much of it is distributed as a dividend back to the people. That completes the loop, rent all the way around. All flows, no stocks.