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The sprawl is real but large swathes of cities zoned exclusively for SFHs is also real. Vancouver is 80% SFHs because of zoning. Recently the government allowe

The sprawl is real but large swathes of cities zoned exclusively for SFHs is also real. Vancouver is 80% SFHs because of zoning. Recently the government allowed multiplexes in SFH zones, and suddenly every new construction is a multiplex, and families are looking at rebuilding their houses to maximize value. If there was no artificial zoning, then Vancouver would be a lot denser and current SFHs would be a lot more expensive (and they're already expensive, 2M on average). This is true across most NA cities. My argument is not that nobody wants SFHs. I'm sure they do, but desires are not fixed. If you had to choose between an SFH 1 hour away from the city, and a row house 15 minutes away, you might go with the row house. And yes, sometimes people want to live far. There's lots of reasons for that, and that's ok, as long as they're paying the real value of it. By the way, this would mean massive property taxes because sparse infrastructure is very expensive.

vel0city 3y ago
> If there was no artificial zoning, then Vancouver would be a lot denser and current SFHs would be a lot more expensive Can you expand on why these SFH's would be more expensive if the zoning policies were different? If people prefer the flats and rowhouse, and we expand the availability of the things they prefer, wouldn't the thing they don't prefer (SFH) fall?
- amrocha 3y ago
  Because of opportunity cost relative to other housing options. Right now you're only allowed to build SFHs, and the market will only bear a price of 2-3M before most people are priced out, so that's what they cost. If instead of one SFH with a large yard you build 5 row houses in the same plot, and sell each one for 1M, the SFH is only 50% efficient compared to the row houses, so its price needs to increase for it to be worth building. It's obviously more complicated than that, but that's the underlying idea. It's the same reason you don't see SFHs in Manhattan, because the opportunity cost is too high.

vel0city 3y ago

> If there was no artificial zoning, then Vancouver would be a lot denser and current SFHs would be a lot more expensive Can you expand on why these SFH's would be more expensive if the zoning policies were different? If people prefer the flats and rowhouse, and we expand the availability of the things they prefer, wouldn't the thing they don't prefer (SFH) fall?

amrocha 3y ago
Because of opportunity cost relative to other housing options. Right now you're only allowed to build SFHs, and the market will only bear a price of 2-3M before most people are priced out, so that's what they cost. If instead of one SFH with a large yard you build 5 row houses in the same plot, and sell each one for 1M, the SFH is only 50% efficient compared to the row houses, so its price needs to increase for it to be worth building. It's obviously more complicated than that, but that's the underlying idea. It's the same reason you don't see SFHs in Manhattan, because the opportunity cost is too high.