5 ms·

Housing supply restrictions are driving the U.S. rent spike

18 points by jseliger 5y ago

throwawaysea 5y ago
There is plenty of housing at affordable prices all over America, in places with great outdoors access and other quality of life benefits. What’s pricey is housing in the most desirable and in-demand urban areas, which is expected. But no one is entitled to live wherever they want at whatever cost of living is convenient for their situation. The solution isn’t to turn every city and neighborhood into a super dense and dull concrete jungle, but to have a more distributed economy. America needs economic development zones with favorable tax treatments and subsidies to incentivize that distributed economy.
- imtringued 5y ago
  Why not just demand that there is an equivalent amount of both residential and commercial real estate? The SF story basically goes like this. The locals block residential construction because its close by and may lower the value of their property. They don't block commercial construction because jobs raise property values. So now there is a mismatch of jobs and housing. The locals will then brag about how they made their city desirable and then reject and reprimand everyone who is moving to the desirable city. The problem is basically job hogging/hoarding. Housing only really becomes unaffordable when there are 2 people fighting over the same house because one of them has to go, for that rejected person the housing is unaffordable. It really looks like a simple case of supply and demand where supply is housing and demand is jobs.
  - throwawaysea 5y ago
    > Why not just demand that there is an equivalent amount of both residential and commercial real estate? That’s an interesting way to look at it, and sure I can agree with that. I would be okay with not allowing the excessive job hoarding.
adventured 5y ago
Well that and the fact that low skill wages are climbing rapidly, meaning even lower tier apartments can now risk pushing rents higher (so if you're renting a mid tier apartment, you're seeing the rents climb up under you, pushing upwards on your rent). I live in a nowhere city in the US where most things are below the national median on cost. Wages have historically been forever depressed here. The minimum wage here is now de facto $13-$15 (far higher than the actual state minimum wage), because you can earn that at entry level retail store jobs, with zero prior experience and they usually don't even require a high school diploma. Those stores still can't find workers to fill the jobs at those rates. So what will it take to fill those jobs? Probably $18-$20 / hr (to scan bar codes at a touch screen POS with zero labor skill). Welcome to bizarro Switzerland or Scandinavia. One consequence of this, will be far higher rents.
- 0xfaded 5y ago
  I know in Denmark at least, rental subsidies are a contributor to the rental floor. I can't find the total subsidy just now, but I remember half of all renters in Denmark receive it. It's a notable part of the state budget.
dredmorbius 5y ago
https://archive.is/1B10T https://archive.is/1B10T

18 points by jseliger 5y ago

There is plenty of housing at affordable prices all over America, in places with great outdoors access and other quality of life benefits. What’s pricey is housing in the most desirable and in-demand urban areas, which is expected. But no one is entitled to live wherever they want at whatever cost of living is convenient for their situation. The solution isn’t to turn every city and neighborhood into a super dense and dull concrete jungle, but to have a more distributed economy. America needs economic development zones with favorable tax treatments and subsidies to incentivize that distributed economy.

imtringued 5y ago
Why not just demand that there is an equivalent amount of both residential and commercial real estate? The SF story basically goes like this. The locals block residential construction because its close by and may lower the value of their property. They don't block commercial construction because jobs raise property values. So now there is a mismatch of jobs and housing. The locals will then brag about how they made their city desirable and then reject and reprimand everyone who is moving to the desirable city. The problem is basically job hogging/hoarding. Housing only really becomes unaffordable when there are 2 people fighting over the same house because one of them has to go, for that rejected person the housing is unaffordable. It really looks like a simple case of supply and demand where supply is housing and demand is jobs.
- throwawaysea 5y ago
  > Why not just demand that there is an equivalent amount of both residential and commercial real estate? That’s an interesting way to look at it, and sure I can agree with that. I would be okay with not allowing the excessive job hoarding.

adventured 5y ago

Well that and the fact that low skill wages are climbing rapidly, meaning even lower tier apartments can now risk pushing rents higher (so if you're renting a mid tier apartment, you're seeing the rents climb up under you, pushing upwards on your rent). I live in a nowhere city in the US where most things are below the national median on cost. Wages have historically been forever depressed here. The minimum wage here is now de facto $13-$15 (far higher than the actual state minimum wage), because you can earn that at entry level retail store jobs, with zero prior experience and they usually don't even require a high school diploma. Those stores still can't find workers to fill the jobs at those rates. So what will it take to fill those jobs? Probably $18-$20 / hr (to scan bar codes at a touch screen POS with zero labor skill). Welcome to bizarro Switzerland or Scandinavia. One consequence of this, will be far higher rents.

0xfaded 5y ago
I know in Denmark at least, rental subsidies are a contributor to the rental floor. I can't find the total subsidy just now, but I remember half of all renters in Denmark receive it. It's a notable part of the state budget.

dredmorbius 5y ago

https://archive.is/1B10T https://archive.is/1B10T