4 ms·

As someone who wants higher density, I see very little progress of this happening. Voters consistently vote against it. The one exception is California state ha

by carom 2y ago

As someone who wants higher density, I see very little progress of this happening. Voters consistently vote against it. The one exception is California state has passed some good laws around ADUs and parking minimums. People will keep voting for rent control and affordable units to prevent construction. The other side of the equation is that wages could increase relative to the price of housing.

brailsafe 2y ago
Rent control is absolutely important; although it does probably have a measurable effect on how quickly things get built, I don't think it's near the top of the list of bottlenecks. > The other side of the equation is that wages could increase relative to the price of housing. It's a system problem with various feedback loops, and people absolutely aren't getting paid enough and don't appreciate how little money they're making relative to what it can buy. In my city we're at a point where a new studio condo with no walls along a major thoroughfare outside the downtown area starts at ~$600k CAD, and older one bedrooms in the same range will still have asbestos and coin-op laundry in the basement. My landlords recently moved out and our living circumstances long-term are being considered. I had a conversation with one of them and she was seemingly clueless about how vulnerable it might have made us, and that's a bit humiliating; "but you guys have been here a while and surely you're making good money since moving in 5 years ago", to which I actually laughed and didn't elaborate, since we now depend on them putting in a good worth with our new overlords. We don't have the job security, we don't have the proportional increase in earning potential. Any decent money made gets erased in the next round of layoffs. Burn it all down.
consteval 2y ago
Kamala has some plans to federally incentive home supply. Some subsidies and goals. Here in Texas, Austin has had great success with pushing supply and now rents actually went down since last year. So based on that I think voters are changing their minds.
- carom 2y ago
  What is weird to me about her proposal is that they talk about 3m homes but that is the normal number of housing starts in 4 years. Do they mean they will double it or are they just giving tax incentives for the expected home construction so they can point to it and get credit?

by carom 2y ago

brailsafe 2y ago

Rent control is absolutely important; although it does probably have a measurable effect on how quickly things get built, I don't think it's near the top of the list of bottlenecks. > The other side of the equation is that wages could increase relative to the price of housing. It's a system problem with various feedback loops, and people absolutely aren't getting paid enough and don't appreciate how little money they're making relative to what it can buy. In my city we're at a point where a new studio condo with no walls along a major thoroughfare outside the downtown area starts at ~$600k CAD, and older one bedrooms in the same range will still have asbestos and coin-op laundry in the basement. My landlords recently moved out and our living circumstances long-term are being considered. I had a conversation with one of them and she was seemingly clueless about how vulnerable it might have made us, and that's a bit humiliating; "but you guys have been here a while and surely you're making good money since moving in 5 years ago", to which I actually laughed and didn't elaborate, since we now depend on them putting in a good worth with our new overlords. We don't have the job security, we don't have the proportional increase in earning potential. Any decent money made gets erased in the next round of layoffs. Burn it all down.

consteval 2y ago

Kamala has some plans to federally incentive home supply. Some subsidies and goals. Here in Texas, Austin has had great success with pushing supply and now rents actually went down since last year. So based on that I think voters are changing their minds.

carom 2y ago
What is weird to me about her proposal is that they talk about 3m homes but that is the normal number of housing starts in 4 years. Do they mean they will double it or are they just giving tax incentives for the expected home construction so they can point to it and get credit?