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Did you have anywhere in mind that had developers underbuild relative to the zoning? Seems like most urban areas in California at least are already near the lim

Did you have anywhere in mind that had developers underbuild relative to the zoning? Seems like most urban areas in California at least are already near the limits of their zoned capacity. A lot of the times when you see a highrise standing out on a block its not because the rest of the block is zoned for that same height and is underbuilt, but often because of some special variances permitting that project to exceed what its zoned for on that lot.

greenie_beans 2y ago
good question. birmingham, alabama didn't build enough to match demand, and that area's zoning isn't very strict compared to big cities. i'm curious to know about the zoning laws in nashville and atlanta, but from my tiny bit of knowledge, those places have seen the supply/demand imbalance like everywhere else. this data point groups together disparate zoning areas like san francisco and minneapolis so it's hard to parse out where exactly it all happened: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/HOUST https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/HOUST this is not my expertise, just something i'm interested in and learned about when i worked on a big project about california's housing. curious to learn more from folks here/find ways i'm wrong.
- seanmcdirmid 2y ago
  Birmingham is way off its peak population. It’s under 200k now (still falling) and was 340k in the 1960s. There is probably a lot of hesitancy to build in a place where the population is shrinking.
  - greenie_beans 2y ago
    birmingham is one city in a bigger metro area. when i speak of "birmingham" i speak of the entire metro area, which has grown in population since the 60s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_metropolitan_area,_Alabama#Cities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_metropolitan_area,_... that stat you grabbed doesn't exist in a vacuum. that stat matches the same time as the white flight demographic shifts that happened in all metro areas in the south. now do huntsville.
    - seanmcdirmid 2y ago
      Even if you take the entire metro, growth since the 1960s has been anemic. 300k growth since 1960, and it actually shrunk in 2021 according to your chart. Again, there are much better places to make money building housing, supplies and know how are limited.

greenie_beans 2y ago

good question. birmingham, alabama didn't build enough to match demand, and that area's zoning isn't very strict compared to big cities. i'm curious to know about the zoning laws in nashville and atlanta, but from my tiny bit of knowledge, those places have seen the supply/demand imbalance like everywhere else. this data point groups together disparate zoning areas like san francisco and minneapolis so it's hard to parse out where exactly it all happened: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/HOUST https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/HOUST this is not my expertise, just something i'm interested in and learned about when i worked on a big project about california's housing. curious to learn more from folks here/find ways i'm wrong.

seanmcdirmid 2y ago
Birmingham is way off its peak population. It’s under 200k now (still falling) and was 340k in the 1960s. There is probably a lot of hesitancy to build in a place where the population is shrinking.
- greenie_beans 2y ago
  birmingham is one city in a bigger metro area. when i speak of "birmingham" i speak of the entire metro area, which has grown in population since the 60s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_metropolitan_area,_Alabama#Cities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_metropolitan_area,_... that stat you grabbed doesn't exist in a vacuum. that stat matches the same time as the white flight demographic shifts that happened in all metro areas in the south. now do huntsville.
  - seanmcdirmid 2y ago
    Even if you take the entire metro, growth since the 1960s has been anemic. 300k growth since 1960, and it actually shrunk in 2021 according to your chart. Again, there are much better places to make money building housing, supplies and know how are limited.