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  #21  
Old Posted Jul 7, 2020, 10:56 PM
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chris08876 chris08876 is offline
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Originally Posted by isaidso View Post
The US usually lets the market decide what happens with few checks and balances in place to guard against negative outcomes. I'm assuming this is no different. Is there no robust system to ensure affordable housing in cities where prices are high? Poorer people just move away? It bears mentioning that Canada hasn't been able to solve our affordable housing crisis either despite building a ton of residential..... alot of which is social housing.

Another thing that baffles me is why more housing isn't built. There's obviously demand so I guess developers feel they can't make money at lower price points?
They just don't build enough affordable housing. It does get built... but the units are always underwhelming in the volume needed. When they say its a housing lottery, it literally is like winning the lottery in terms of odds. 80,000+ folks applying for only a 100-200 units (In NYC for example), its insane.

Even new home construction, sucks. I was speaking to an agent the other day, for Eastern PA, and the amount of new unit construction is paltry.

I think such housing has to be forced on certain cities. Rezone neighborhoods, increase the unit cap, and make developers willing to build such units (incentives, ability to make a profit, curtail community input).

I just question how long this will go on before cities start to really feel the impact to where it effects its growth indefinitely.

Some folks might be fine with it, but look 10...20 years down the line. I mean unless wages magically go up by 40%, places like NYC, SF, LA, Seattle... will start to see some bs. Would suck for those places to turn into Monaco's.
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  #22  
Old Posted Jul 8, 2020, 12:01 AM
Buckeye Native 001 Buckeye Native 001 is offline
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If some economists are to be believed, we're on the verge of an affordable housing crisis in the United States. I'm sure some landlords will think it's bullshit. Apparently most of us don't have a right to live wherever we want and if we don't like the affordability (or lack thereof) in our current city/metro, we can just up and move wherever we need to go on a whim.

If there's a nuance in between those kinds of extremist thoughts and expectations, I've yet to hear it.
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  #23  
Old Posted Jul 8, 2020, 12:38 AM
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chris08876 chris08876 is offline
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Has to be jammed down folks throats, the housing. While the landlords might not like it, the well being of the masses is more important than the landlords.

A lot of the homes on the market are overvalued. Folks asking for way too much, and than what you end up seeing is the price drop by 10-15% and in some cases, 20% once its ready to close (the deal).

Eventually, the Feds need to target this affordability issue if the states are failing to fix it. Its going to reach point, I'm telling ya, its going to reach a point where it will get bad for "X" metros or states.

On a side note, things like college costs need to be addressed as well. The list is massive. But I digress.
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  #24  
Old Posted Jul 8, 2020, 8:23 PM
Qubert Qubert is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chris08876 View Post
They just don't build enough affordable housing. It does get built... but the units are always underwhelming in the volume needed. When they say its a housing lottery, it literally is like winning the lottery in terms of odds. 80,000+ folks applying for only a 100-200 units (In NYC for example), its insane.

Even new home construction, sucks. I was speaking to an agent the other day, for Eastern PA, and the amount of new unit construction is paltry.

I think such housing has to be forced on certain cities. Rezone neighborhoods, increase the unit cap, and make developers willing to build such units (incentives, ability to make a profit, curtail community input).

I just question how long this will go on before cities start to really feel the impact to where it effects its growth indefinitely.

Some folks might be fine with it, but look 10...20 years down the line. I mean unless wages magically go up by 40%, places like NYC, SF, LA, Seattle... will start to see some bs. Would suck for those places to turn into Monaco's.
NYC's "Housing Crisis" is one that is wholly political in nature. When you mix the traditional issues of NIMBYism with a visceral fear of "gentrification" nothing truly gets built. Developments with 30-40-50% affordable are screamed out of the room by the various advocacy groups that attend the zoning meetings.

There's simply no economic blueprint for massive amounts of low income housing getting built without the federal government getting involved and we saw where that went the last time (1930s to 1960s). Mixed income neighborhoods are the tried and true blueprint the world over but that is no longer politically acceptable.
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  #25  
Old Posted Jul 8, 2020, 8:27 PM
Qubert Qubert is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Buckeye Native 001 View Post
If some economists are to be believed, we're on the verge of an affordable housing crisis in the United States. I'm sure some landlords will think it's bullshit. Apparently most of us don't have a right to live wherever we want and if we don't like the affordability (or lack thereof) in our current city/metro, we can just up and move wherever we need to go on a whim.

If there's a nuance in between those kinds of extremist thoughts and expectations, I've yet to hear it.
We need to define what constitutes "where ever we want". If the standard is on the beachfront of Malibu or Jupiter Fl, or Manhattan SoHo, then yes, that's is in fact unreasonable and untenable. If the standard is that every metro area should be able to comfortably house it's low-wage population in an equitable and non-segregated manner then yes, we should try to move such an ideal forward.
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  #26  
Old Posted Jul 8, 2020, 9:23 PM
Buckeye Native 001 Buckeye Native 001 is offline
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The latter. Absolutely the latter. I like living where I live and have a relatively decent job and benefits and would like to continue living here without worrying about getting priced out of the suburbs. I do not expect nor demand to be able to live close to downtown just because I want to, even though it'd cut my commute time significantly.

Unfortunately, developers and landowners have my city's planning department by the balls and nothing gets built that isn't either specifically for students (college town) or rich Phoenicians wanting second homes to escape the summer heat. That, coupled with the proliferation of AirBnB has created one hell of a housing shortage.
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  #27  
Old Posted Jul 8, 2020, 10:27 PM
Qubert Qubert is offline
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Originally Posted by Buckeye Native 001 View Post
The latter. Absolutely the latter. I like living where I live and have a relatively decent job and benefits and would like to continue living here without worrying about getting priced out of the suburbs. I do not expect nor demand to be able to live close to downtown just because I want to, even though it'd cut my commute time significantly.

Unfortunately, developers and landowners have my city's planning department by the balls and nothing gets built that isn't either specifically for students (college town) or rich Phoenicians wanting second homes to escape the summer heat. That, coupled with the proliferation of AirBnB has created one hell of a housing shortage.
Unfortuntely, like any large, complex, systemic issue, any real solution will probably involve pissing everyone off. NIMBYs obviously, but libertarians won't like the affordability mandates, the new-left won't like the fact that there's simply no housing solutions that don't involve developers/profit motive, the city council won't like having their little fifedom of "approval process" taken away and so on and so forth.

City planning needs to be an executive level function, mayor or above. Allowing community input means we will go no where (example: CA's SB40). As a NYer, we have to reckon with the fact that Robert Moses got things done....the wrong things of course.....but there's something to be said for actually getting stuff built.
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  #28  
Old Posted Jul 27, 2020, 12:09 AM
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WQ5668 WQ5668 is offline
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I work in Central Bucks County and live in Upper Bucks, Springfield Township it is on the Lehigh-Northampton County border, Quakertown is 5 minutes from my house, and Upper Montgomery County is near by and all I see are more NY tags than anything.

My dad has a house in Port Richmond over the past 2 years 5 NY's have moved on his block, he tiny row home is accessed at $125,000 and he gets flyers put in his mailbox with offers on his house for more than that. My aunt lives in Fishtown, homes on her street are getting bought extended to the back yard, 3rd floors put on with roof top decks on, selling for $600,00, I was down there recently and shook my head at the NY tags.
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  #29  
Old Posted Jul 27, 2020, 2:05 AM
eixample eixample is offline
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Originally Posted by WQ5668 View Post
I work in Central Bucks County and live in Upper Bucks, Springfield Township it is on the Lehigh-Northampton County border, Quakertown is 5 minutes from my house, and Upper Montgomery County is near by and all I see are more NY tags than anything.

My dad has a house in Port Richmond over the past 2 years 5 NY's have moved on his block, he tiny row home is accessed at $125,000 and he gets flyers put in his mailbox with offers on his house for more than that. My aunt lives in Fishtown, homes on her street are getting bought extended to the back yard, 3rd floors put on with roof top decks on, selling for $600,00, I was down there recently and shook my head at the NY tags.
For some reason, lots of Philly full-time Uber drivers lease cars with NY plates so it can be a little deceiving.

I am a NY to Philly transplant (although a PA native) going back a few years so I get the appeal. The price difference alone is staggering and the ability to own your own actual house is very appealing. Plus I think there are a lot of out of town small scale real estate investors.
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