Who says we can't?
It turns out that "Why can't we..." means "Why aren't we allowed to..."
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Why Can't We Build an Affordable House?
31–40 of 58 posts
Re: Why Can't We Build an Affordable House?
#32Well, if you look at it from a capitalist point of view, the real question is "Why would we?".
Re: Why Can't We Build an Affordable House?
#33we can, we just don't want to build one smaller or less opulent than the neighbors have. in fact we have to build bigger!
Re: Why Can't We Build an Affordable House?
#34Here's why we wouldn't : cheap houses = poor neighbors = various social pathologies and stigmas. You can get an affordable trailer now, but most people don't if they can afford not to.
not necessarily true. there is a distinction to be made between cheap and affordable. around where I live, there are no affordable houses being built anywhere. every new home is at least $600k, far outside the wage of the average resident. I can remember in the late 1980s you could buy a new home for less than $100k. Good luck doing that now!! I find it incredible that people can afford to buy, and live in, these huge homes. They pay hundreds a month just for electricity. Astounding.
Re: Why Can't We Build an Affordable House?
#35Ask city councils that set minimum square footage restrictions for new housing.
And have 5000 regulations for safety, external prettiness, etc... Those may be good things, but they cost money, and poor people aren't given the option to choose which features they can live without.
There was a study done back in the 80s, I think, about the cost of regulation in housing. As I recall, regulation amounted to 35% of the cost of a house. I would guess that the trend continued.
Re: Why Can't We Build an Affordable House?
#36Here's why we wouldn't : cheap houses = poor neighbors = various social pathologies and stigmas. You can get an affordable trailer now, but most people don't if they can afford not to.
not necessarily true. there is a distinction to be made between cheap and affordable. around where I live, there are no affordable houses being built anywhere. every new home is at least $600k, far outside the wage of the average resident. I can remember in the late 1980s you could buy a new home for less than $100k. Good luck doing that now!! I find it incredible that people can afford to buy, and live in, these hug…
Large home. Hundreds per month on electricity. Hmmm. Maybe they need the space and power for their dozens of computers? ;)
Re: Why Can't We Build an Affordable House?
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
And have 5000 regulations for safety, external prettiness, etc... Those may be good things, but they cost money, and poor people aren't given the option to choose which features they can live without.
There was a study done back in the 80s, I think, about the cost of regulation in housing. As I recall, regulation amounted to 35% of the cost of a house. I would guess that the trend continued.
Wow that's terrible. And I think it did get worse:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/200...
> Between 1989 and 2006, the median inflation-adjusted price of a Seattle house rose from $221,000 to $447,800. Fully $200,000 of that increase was the result of land-use regulations, says Theo Eicher — twice the financial impact that regulation has had on other major U.S. cities.
Re: Why Can't We Build an Affordable House?
#38Here's why we wouldn't : cheap houses = poor neighbors = various social pathologies and stigmas. You can get an affordable trailer now, but most people don't if they can afford not to.
not necessarily true. there is a distinction to be made between cheap and affordable. around where I live, there are no affordable houses being built anywhere. every new home is at least $600k, far outside the wage of the average resident. I can remember in the late 1980s you could buy a new home for less than $100k. Good luck doing that now!! I find it incredible that people can afford to buy, and live in, these hug…
I was thinking more in terms of a Bucky Fuller-style $10,000 house that would be as good as a house that costs $100,000 to build. If you can't find anything around $100,000 in your area, that probably is due to a land shortage.
There are actually still affordable new homes going up in areas with lots of land and few regulations on construction. As you can see, you can easily find a new home in the Houston area for little more than $100K: http://www.lennar.com/findhome/city.aspx?CITYID=HOU&_kk=...
I'm sure you could buy an older house for much less.
Re: Why Can't We Build an Affordable House?
#39We can, there's just a lot of factors making it hard to gain market acceptance (is that the appropriate term here?) I would jump at the chance to live in something like a Dymaxion house* in a walkable community. * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_House EDIT: For more awesome houses, have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_building
It's worth noting that Bucky Fuller, designer of the Dymaxion House, had terrible problems with unions and regulations. That's part of why his homebuilding business was a failure.
Re: Why Can't We Build an Affordable House?
#40People didn't "buy houses they couldn't afford". They bought houses who's value was 40-50% inflated and then had that value disappear, almost overnight. I love how this 'crisis' is blamed on over-reaching Americans, but only one side of the transaction. It takes two to tango, but don't forget the millions of Americans who made billions selling homes at grossly inflated values.
> People didn't "buy houses they couldn't afford". They bought houses who's value was 40-50% inflated and then had that value disappear, almost overnight. If they can't pay for their houses, they can't afford said houses, no matter what said houses are worth or how said worth changes. Mortgages aren't "called" when a house's value changes. Mortgages aren't "called" when the lender goes bankrupt (someone else buys the…
Or maybe because devalued houses are no longer worth keeping paying for?