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I’ve become convinced there’s no solution. It takes a lot of money and time to build. If you make it easy to build then there’s less money to be made and theref
by endisneigh 4y ago
I’ve become convinced there’s no solution. It takes a lot of money and time to build. If you make it easy to build then there’s less money to be made and therefore less will be built.
Make it hard to be build and there will be immense pressure to build but it won’t happen.
The two ends are constantly trying to find an equilibrium. The only way to make housing affordable is to overbuild, but private money won’t do it for obvious reasons.
The government could subsidize building but in essence that’s just making rich people richer. Perhaps that’s the only way short of forcing people to build (like prison labor or something horrible like that).
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I used to believe that eliminating zoning and increasing density is the solution (still think so), but induced demand is a thing. When I studied this I found no evidence denser areas are cheaper. In fact the denser areas tend to be more expensive from my own research.
- Ekaros 4y agoI think solution could be some sort of government loan or subsidy scheme. Aim for some low level of profitability 2-5%. And make it low risk enough.
- pessimizer 4y agoThere are enough housing subsidies aimed at the wealthy.
- gmfawcett 4y agoIn fairness you haven't ruled out all solutions, only the capitalist ones.
- vladvasiliu 4y agoAnother issue I see is that many "regular" people have a lot of their money tied in their house, via mortgages. If housing suddenly becomes cheaper for whatever reason, so will their properties. I can see why the owners wouldn't want that.
- sleepdreamy 4y agoMajority of regular/middle-class folks have their equity tied to their home. I agree (I am one of them)
- phphphphp 4y agoConstruction is cheap, most “property” value comes from land — not the building itself. Hence you’ll find sprawling mega-mansions that are under a million dollars in the middle of nowhere, whereas a few hundred square feet can cost millions in New York. Denser areas are more expensive because that’s where people want to live, and land is at a premium.
- endisneigh 4y agoConstruction is not cheap. If what you were saying were true renovations would be cheap, which they are not. And the land becoming more expensive is the point. If an area becomes more popular then it will be denser meaning the land is more expensive meaning the housing is more expensive. Building denser does not necessarily result in cheaper housing in the net.
- notch656a 4y agoIDK, where I live land is cheap (think $10k) but even the shittiest land with a house on it is expensive (you would easily pay $250k+ for a house that would cost $125k in labor and materials build). Zoning and Building codes mean houses are artificially constrained in a way land is not. There's an insane premium on zoning and permitting the land to build, as well as having the irreplaceable liberty to be covered by a grandfathered structure that is no longer legally buildable.