The disappearance of such affordable homes is central to the American housing crisis. The nation has a deepening shortage of housing. But, more specifically, there isn’t enough of this housing: small, no-frills homes that would give a family new to the country or a young couple with student debt a foothold to build equity. [...]
At the root is the math problem of putting — or keeping — a low-cost home on increasingly pricey land.
— The New York Times
America has a long history of gradually siphoning away architecture made for predominantly middle-class people (think pre-war buildings in Manhattan or Levittown tract housing on Long Island) and is now simply under-delivering what could otherwise be an equalizing force as a result of prevailing factors like intimidating zoning regulations, prohibitive materials costs, and nationwide lack of available new land.
Changes in demand also meant the 2010s were curtains for the possibility of building a home at less than $100,000. Today’s market has gravitated towards so-called "missing middle" construction as historical notions of family composition themselves come into question. This means the future of housing might look closer to Adam Neumann's Flow vision or BIG's Nabr initiative than it does to the archetypal American suburb of the 1950s.
As the Times reports, its cause can also be attributed to the overburdening of builders to foot tax bills for infrastructure such as parks and roads. "It’s not that I don’t want to build entry-level homes," National Association of Home Builders chairman Jerry Konter said. "It’s that I can’t produce one that I can make a profit on and sell to that potential purchaser."
12 Comments
A great article that addresses structural factors - and some developers' views too. But it does tend to focus on the supply side of this nationwide (and even global) issue. The demand side is also quite fascinating - why do people flock to places that are so expensive? And how do we make hitherto less attractive places more attractive?
There was an ad campaign in Manhattan a while back from Ohio - it bragged about low taxes and even lower home prices. Move to Ohio, invited the giant billboards. Why not indeed?
Of course, places that used to be backwaters have become hugely popular - much to the detriment of emigres hoping for a bargain. So at least some people are moving from prohibitively expensive cities to others that offer competitive attractions.
Smaller cities far from coastal megacities are offering draws to young workers freed from the office: Jobs, schools, taxes, security, culture, lifestyle ... I suppose that migration still happens at a glacial pace compared to those who continue to flock to coastal metropolis - and home prices even in these parts are still skyrocketing, not least due to a relative lack of labor.
Bad statistics and propaganda used to manipulate desperate people who have been devastated by the greed of the wealthy and politically motivated.
“And how do we make hitherto less attractive places more attractive?” The artists move in and gentrification takes place. It’s a fleeting moment where one can be part of this at an affordable price.
In other words, it happens, but it burns out quickly
Are any of you aware of masterworks? It allows many people to invest in high price artwork. Like a thousand regular folks investing into a Picasso vs one Rich guy. Something like that with development. Idk how, but we need to somehow create a mechanism for new development that relies on crowd sourcing. Maybe?
Crowd sourcing is a terrible way to fund anything. It leads to bloat and suffers from too many cooks. It's the reason you're hard pressed to find a board game that costs anything less than 150 bucks after crowdsourcing.
Yeah the too many cooks thing is a problem.
Hahaha i remember those billboards, one went up a few blocks from me, encouraging people in my neighborhood to ditch their studio apartments for a house in Ohio. Yeah thanks buddy, maybe address the regressive social issues that are the root cause for you having to beg people to move there in the first place, then we can talk. (I live in a predominantly first-gen immigrant neighborhood, myself included, so it came as a strikingly tone-deaf approach)
two words: exclusionary zoning.
Blackrock is buying up middleclass housing. Same for mysterious all cash investors. The purpose is turn America into a nation of impoverished renters. Never mind being self sufficient and independent. Everyone rent a home to be more "sustainable" and "equitable" to those historically excluded from buying.
you’d have to be a truly brain dead to believe the government and corporations care about equity and the environment. I put all my friends who fell for this crap over the last few years on a list “people too gullible to come to my apocalypse survival commune”
Here's one from the FT dealing with flyover states (Sorry, Columbus): https://www.ft.com/content/36c...
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