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The idea is that construction barriers are removed so that the normal housing market is cheap enough for teachers to afford. As in, enough housing is built so t

The idea is that construction barriers are removed so that the normal housing market is cheap enough for teachers to afford. As in, enough housing is built so that a teacher can just browse craiglist and find housing they can afford.

rhacker 4y ago
Well, it's still CA, so as soon as people realize there is a house for $250k in the Bay Area, or rental options for sub $1500, they will start moving there again. Not just one house, but even a million new houses will cause people to move there.
- jeromegv 4y ago
  It's really unlikely that an extra million spaces for housing would not change the current market price. But EVEN if this was true that there is someone outside waiting to move back for when prices drop just a little, then now we have at least a million more people that can afford to live in a city close to their work, instead of being forced out. More housing is better than less. There are no scenarios where it's worse for market price to build more housing.
  - Manuel_D 4y ago
    > then now we have at least a million more people that can afford to live in a city close to their work, instead of being forced out. This is one of the most underrated aspects of the housing shortage. Some of the people harmed by the housing crunch are people paying significant portions of their income in the form of rents. But most are the people who aren't able to move to economically dynamic metros in the first place, and are thus relegated to living in a place with worse job prospects. The latter group has no voice in housing policy, and is effectively disenfranchised in housing politics despite feelings its effects.
- cheriot 4y ago
  Anyone can visit, but staying here means having a job. The migration to the Bay Area is because cities approved the construction of so many office buildings (and continue to do so).
ROTMetro 4y ago
As someone forced to move away from the bay area because of housing costs, as soon as housing comes down many of us expats (who have been able to build a sizable nest egg by NOT living in the bay area) will also compete to return. So plan for enough new units for current need + people forced to leave.
- bombcar 4y ago
  At some point increases in density will change the character of the city enough that some won’t want to return. If the Bay Area becomes Singapore it won’t be the Bay Area anymore.
  - Manuel_D 4y ago
    Sure but the inevitable consequence of this is higher housing costs. If there's only 800k housing units, and a million people want to live there then 200k people are going to fail to find housing. There's no escaping the mismatch between supply and demand. If you don't build more housing, the character of the city will change too: it will become uniformly high-income since that's the only people who can afford to live there.
    - bombcar 4y ago
      It's already on that path, and they either need to embrace it (pay janitors in San Francisco $150k a year) or change. My personal suspicion is that the "desirable type" of town that San Francisco was is actually an unstable state, and the only way to permanently have it is to regularly move.
      - zbrozek 4y ago
        I don't think that will work. There's very little elasticity in the market, so to first order every dollar pumped into wages will be turned around and put into housing and drive up prices even further. There's only two ways out of this hole: you drive people away or you build more housing.
  - 4y ago

rhacker 4y ago

Well, it's still CA, so as soon as people realize there is a house for $250k in the Bay Area, or rental options for sub $1500, they will start moving there again. Not just one house, but even a million new houses will cause people to move there.

jeromegv 4y ago
It's really unlikely that an extra million spaces for housing would not change the current market price. But EVEN if this was true that there is someone outside waiting to move back for when prices drop just a little, then now we have at least a million more people that can afford to live in a city close to their work, instead of being forced out. More housing is better than less. There are no scenarios where it's worse for market price to build more housing.
- Manuel_D 4y ago
  > then now we have at least a million more people that can afford to live in a city close to their work, instead of being forced out. This is one of the most underrated aspects of the housing shortage. Some of the people harmed by the housing crunch are people paying significant portions of their income in the form of rents. But most are the people who aren't able to move to economically dynamic metros in the first place, and are thus relegated to living in a place with worse job prospects. The latter group has no voice in housing policy, and is effectively disenfranchised in housing politics despite feelings its effects.
cheriot 4y ago
Anyone can visit, but staying here means having a job. The migration to the Bay Area is because cities approved the construction of so many office buildings (and continue to do so).

ROTMetro 4y ago

As someone forced to move away from the bay area because of housing costs, as soon as housing comes down many of us expats (who have been able to build a sizable nest egg by NOT living in the bay area) will also compete to return. So plan for enough new units for current need + people forced to leave.

bombcar 4y ago
At some point increases in density will change the character of the city enough that some won’t want to return. If the Bay Area becomes Singapore it won’t be the Bay Area anymore.
- Manuel_D 4y ago
  Sure but the inevitable consequence of this is higher housing costs. If there's only 800k housing units, and a million people want to live there then 200k people are going to fail to find housing. There's no escaping the mismatch between supply and demand. If you don't build more housing, the character of the city will change too: it will become uniformly high-income since that's the only people who can afford to live there.
  - bombcar 4y ago
    It's already on that path, and they either need to embrace it (pay janitors in San Francisco $150k a year) or change. My personal suspicion is that the "desirable type" of town that San Francisco was is actually an unstable state, and the only way to permanently have it is to regularly move.
    - zbrozek 4y ago
      I don't think that will work. There's very little elasticity in the market, so to first order every dollar pumped into wages will be turned around and put into housing and drive up prices even further. There's only two ways out of this hole: you drive people away or you build more housing.
- 4y ago