Buy a 10 acre lot in a nimby area (Palo Alto Hiils/Atherton/Los Altos Hills) for $5M, Split it into 20 x 0.25 acres and sell it for $250K each to teachers, firefighters, police, retired army soldiers telling the buyers it is sold as-is. Let them build houses on their lots and figure out the rest.
New Startup Working on Software to Help Government Fix Housing Problems
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Re: New Startup Working on Software to Help Government Fix Housing Problems
#12Buy a 10 acre lot in a nimby area (Palo Alto Hiils/Atherton/Los Altos Hills) for $5M, Split it into 20 x 0.25 acres and sell it for $250K each to teachers, firefighters, police, retired army soldiers telling the buyers it is sold as-is. Let them build houses on their lots and figure out the rest.
Ignoring the fact that undeveloped land in PA is going for about $3mm an acre, What you’re talking about is commonly known as a subdivision. You need to account for roads, utilities, zoning, etc. im also fairly certain you would run into nimby problems even just by trying to subdivide and sell individual lots.
You would also have no way (that I know of) of only selling to people like teachers, firefighters, etc because of fair housing laws. There’s may be an exception for military.
Re: New Startup Working on Software to Help Government Fix Housing Problems
#13This doesn't seem like the case but Cathy O'Neil (the author of Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy) raises the point that we often see algorithms implemented in non-traditional ways when society faces tough questions. It makes me really hesitant about using algorithms as silver bullets to solve hard problems in society.
Re: New Startup Working on Software to Help Government Fix Housing Problems
#14Buy a 10 acre lot in a nimby area (Palo Alto Hiils/Atherton/Los Altos Hills) for $5M, Split it into 20 x 0.25 acres and sell it for $250K each to teachers, firefighters, police, retired army soldiers telling the buyers it is sold as-is. Let them build houses on their lots and figure out the rest.
Ignoring the fact that undeveloped land in PA is going for about $3mm an acre, What you’re talking about is commonly known as a subdivision. You need to account for roads, utilities, zoning, etc. im also fairly certain you would run into nimby problems even just by trying to subdivide and sell individual lots. You would also have no way (that I know of) of only selling to people like teachers, firefighters, etc becau…
> You would also have no way (that I know of) of only selling to people like teachers, firefighters, etc because of fair housing laws. There’s may be an exception for military.
Isn't the San Francisco school district doing precisely this for teachers? I also recall reading that Stanford was securing housing nearby and 'selling' to faculty members by granting them loans with super generous mortgage payments, with the expectation that said faculty member will never actually pay off the mortgage.
Re: New Startup Working on Software to Help Government Fix Housing Problems
#15Our startup, Fabrica.city, is trying to solve housing problems by focusing on the financial side of it, and "attacking" the issue of how to handle titles digitally (and therefore, save costs, etc.).
It's early in our journey, but I hope that we'll be able to show some real progress soon. Wish us luck :)
Re: New Startup Working on Software to Help Government Fix Housing Problems
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ignoring the fact that undeveloped land in PA is going for about $3mm an acre, What you’re talking about is commonly known as a subdivision. You need to account for roads, utilities, zoning, etc. im also fairly certain you would run into nimby problems even just by trying to subdivide and sell individual lots. You would also have no way (that I know of) of only selling to people like teachers, firefighters, etc becau…
> You would also have no way (that I know of) of only selling to people like teachers, firefighters, etc because of fair housing laws. There’s may be an exception for military. Isn't the San Francisco school district doing precisely this for teachers? I also recall reading that Stanford was securing housing nearby and 'selling' to faculty members by granting them loans with super generous mortgage payments, with the…
I’m not sure. I just know that source of income is considered “protected” under CA fair housing. Who knows what sorts of loopholes and exceptions exist.
Re: New Startup Working on Software to Help Government Fix Housing Problems
#17Great idea but I don't think the government really cares about fixing this issue.
In Denmark we do, it’s one of the top priorities in most municipalities. As nice as these ideas are, the solution isn’t software, it’s building more affordable housing.
It may be different in the US, but we have really great censuses data on everything mentioned here, and it seems strange an American government body wouldn’t know where things like it’s taxes are coming from.
Re: New Startup Working on Software to Help Government Fix Housing Problems
#18Buy a 10 acre lot in a nimby area (Palo Alto Hiils/Atherton/Los Altos Hills) for $5M, Split it into 20 x 0.25 acres and sell it for $250K each to teachers, firefighters, police, retired army soldiers telling the buyers it is sold as-is. Let them build houses on their lots and figure out the rest.
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Re: New Startup Working on Software to Help Government Fix Housing Problems
#19Buy a 10 acre lot in a nimby area (Palo Alto Hiils/Atherton/Los Altos Hills) for $5M, Split it into 20 x 0.25 acres and sell it for $250K each to teachers, firefighters, police, retired army soldiers telling the buyers it is sold as-is. Let them build houses on their lots and figure out the rest.
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Re: New Startup Working on Software to Help Government Fix Housing Problems
#20I like the goal, and I'd even love to work on something like this, but is this a business or a non-profit project? Where are they gonna make money? Also, I don't think reform is bottlenecked on data. At this point, we have strong causal hypotheses and the data we do have supports those hypotheses almost unilaterally. The problem is almost entirely in the hands of political science: juridictional and generational poli…
Governments aren’t generally cash constrained at the core (they often are at the margin, though) so if you can substantially contribute to solving a problem government cares about, it can be quite lucrative.