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> It is illegal to build dense housing. This is an oversimplification that gets repeated too often. It is not illegal to build dense housing. There are suburb

by jjav 3y ago

> It is illegal to build dense housing. This is an oversimplification that gets repeated too often. It is not illegal to build dense housing. There are suburban areas where zoning doesn't allow you to build a high-rise apartment building. That is true. But why would you build a high-rise apartment building out in the suburbs anyway? Here (in the outskirts of silicon valley) high-rise apartment buildings near downtown are popping up like mushrooms, there are perpetually at least a couple in construction as soon as others are completed. Lots of dense housing being built, nothing illegal about it.

AnthonyMouse 3y ago
> This is an oversimplification that gets repeated too often. It is not illegal to build dense housing. It is illegal to build dense housing in most of the land area where it would be useful. Naturally the few exceptions will cause it to be built there, but that doesn't make for a solution. Since there are so few such areas, the price of land zoned for density skyrockets and that gets added to the cost of the new units, making construction uneconomical well before the units become affordable to ordinary people. An a plot of land where it's legal to build a 10-story building doesn't really allow you to increase the housing supply when it has had a 10-story building already on it since 1965. > But why would you build a high-rise apartment building out in the suburbs anyway? Because that's where the land that doesn't already have a high-rise on it is.
- jjav 3y ago
  > Because that's where the land that doesn't already have a high-rise on it is. True, but the people who want to live in a highrise also want to live in a city, not out in the suburbs. Who are you (as the builder) selling these units to? Can you do so profitably if there's not that much demand for highrise living in the suburbs?
  - AnthonyMouse 3y ago
    Suppose the price of a house in the suburbs is $400,000. Developer buys one, pays $5M more to build a building with 20 condos in it, sells them each for $350,000 and nets $1.6M. Why would somebody buy one of those instead of a house? Because they're $350,000 instead of $400,000.
    - jjav 3y ago
      > Why would somebody buy one of those instead of a house? Because they're $350,000 instead of $400,000. That's one reason, but another common reason is that they just want to live there and there isn't a house available on the market so they take what they can get even if that is the apartment for 400K.
      - AnthonyMouse 3y ago
        This was your question: > Who are you (as the builder) selling these units to? Can you do so profitably if there's not that much demand for highrise living in the suburbs? It seems like you've answered it yourself? You're essentially asking who you're going to sell new housing to in a housing shortage.

by jjav 3y ago

AnthonyMouse 3y ago

> This is an oversimplification that gets repeated too often. It is not illegal to build dense housing. It is illegal to build dense housing in most of the land area where it would be useful. Naturally the few exceptions will cause it to be built there, but that doesn't make for a solution. Since there are so few such areas, the price of land zoned for density skyrockets and that gets added to the cost of the new units, making construction uneconomical well before the units become affordable to ordinary people. An a plot of land where it's legal to build a 10-story building doesn't really allow you to increase the housing supply when it has had a 10-story building already on it since 1965. > But why would you build a high-rise apartment building out in the suburbs anyway? Because that's where the land that doesn't already have a high-rise on it is.

jjav 3y ago
> Because that's where the land that doesn't already have a high-rise on it is. True, but the people who want to live in a highrise also want to live in a city, not out in the suburbs. Who are you (as the builder) selling these units to? Can you do so profitably if there's not that much demand for highrise living in the suburbs?
- AnthonyMouse 3y ago
  Suppose the price of a house in the suburbs is $400,000. Developer buys one, pays $5M more to build a building with 20 condos in it, sells them each for $350,000 and nets $1.6M. Why would somebody buy one of those instead of a house? Because they're $350,000 instead of $400,000.
  - jjav 3y ago
    > Why would somebody buy one of those instead of a house? Because they're $350,000 instead of $400,000. That's one reason, but another common reason is that they just want to live there and there isn't a house available on the market so they take what they can get even if that is the apartment for 400K.
    - AnthonyMouse 3y ago
      This was your question: > Who are you (as the builder) selling these units to? Can you do so profitably if there's not that much demand for highrise living in the suburbs? It seems like you've answered it yourself? You're essentially asking who you're going to sell new housing to in a housing shortage.