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Has LA cracked the code for building affordable housing?

benjaminschneider.substack.com

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Re: Has LA cracked the code for building affordable housing?

#21

Post by thisgoesnowhere »

crooked-v wrote: post #4

There's no big secret here. Dump restrictive zoning requirements, remove subjective approval processes, and make the permitting process a "shall approve" instead of "may approve", and you'll see a lot of new housing get built very quickly. All the slowdowns and immense extra expenses are self-inflicted by city residents who either don't care, don't want cheaper housing, or have been infected by the terminally brainle…

The restrictive zoning practices, long approval processes ridiculous permitting costs etc are in place because most people's entire net worth is held up in housing and they vote for laws that keep the price high for that reason.

It's completely backwards to think that the reason why housing is expensive is because of those symptoms when the root cause is more than half the population wants mega high housing costs.

Re: Has LA cracked the code for building affordable housing?

#22

Post by skeptrune »

My main takeaway from this is that the free market may have already lowered housing costs if bureaucracy would just get out of the way.

I mean it seems like there is something to the bit of regulation that forces them to keep rent low, but broadly this suggests to me that the bulk of spend should be on somehow making the bureaucratic part of the system run more smoothly or be easier to navigate so more projects get approved and built.

The last bit about learning from Houston especially made me chuckle. Houston is cheap and big at the same time and likely because there are so little bureaucraticisms for zoning/roofdeck requirements. The cost is that the city is ugly and not "tier 1" but seems like a fine tradeoff.

Re: Has LA cracked the code for building affordable housing?

#24

Post by echelon »

h0l0cube wrote: post #18
readthenotes1 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not what I read from the article. Instead it seemed to be fairly arbitrary government regulations such as required shrubbery and facade articulation that make the cost of building prohibitively expensive. Now, you may be saying it's NIMBY for the LA government to require unnecessary (or mildly necessary) stuff to keep the neighborhoods beautiful, but it's I'd guess it's probably more "just because I can means…

> required shrubbery and facade articulation Isn't that appeasing to the NIMBYs who don't want their property values to drop?

This is decades of regulation set by people who may no longer be alive.

These archaic rules were crafted for a different era and are products of that time and thinking. Their desires and pressures were different than the ones we face today.

We need to garbage collect the rules and streamline for today's needs. Some regulations, such as fire safety, remain important. Many others are simply an unnecessary impediment that hold us back from meeting demand.

Re: Has LA cracked the code for building affordable housing?

#25

Post by cyberax »

jimbob45 wrote: post #6

What is “affordable housing”? All housing becomes affordable once you build enough of it. Is it just the politically correct way of saying “low-quality housing”?

> What is “affordable housing”?

It's one of two things:

1. A polite way to say "housing project" or "subsidized housing" to not scare people.

2. A buzzword to force more housing density and/or promote social engineering agendas. When used in this sense, it isn't actually linked to affordability.

Re: Has LA cracked the code for building affordable housing?

#26

Post by skeptrune »

cyberax wrote: post #17

I'll save you a click: no. Here's the thing: housing in dense cities will NEVER be affordable. Never. What happened recently (and is happening in other cities like Seattle) is companies pivoting from building "luxury" crappy condos to sweet state-subsdizied housing. These kinds of projects are great for them, they don't need to care about the market demand.

That's not really what the article says was going on. Those "luxuries" were being mandated by the bureaucratic agencies. Builders seem to have never really wanted them in the first place. The developers are apparently happy to ditch all the niceities and offer affordable housing if allowed it seems.

Not like I've done my own research, but the article was actually interesting.

Re: Has LA cracked the code for building affordable housing?

#27

Post by Veedrac »

fragmede wrote: post #10

Or, seeing as how it's kind of important, we could subsidize building more housing.

You don't solve the problem of having more demand than supply by subsidizing demand. You solve it by making it legal to build housing. There is already plenty of monetary reward in building houses in places where housing is expensive; that's what it means for housing to be expensive.

Re: Has LA cracked the code for building affordable housing?

#28

Post by robomartin »

Making things affordable in LA will be easy. Almost everyone I know is either in the process of leaving CA or planning on leaving. This includes everything from middle-class individuals to high-net-worth families, soon-to-retire and retired. Everyone is sick of the financially abusive environment in CA, at every level. And, of course, other issues.

My wife and I are so sick of it that it has become an almost weekly conversation. She is actively investigating where to go. There are a range of options, from other places in the US to Europe. Today she was showing me her research on opportunities in Valencia, Spain.

When we go, we will take three businesses and as many of the people working for us as possible out of CA. Logistically, it is far more likely that the move will happen within the US, of course.

So yeah, keep going on this path and housing affordability will not be a problem at all. That's my take on it. Right or wrong.

Re: Has LA cracked the code for building affordable housing?

#29

Post by apsurd »

cyberax wrote: post #23

[flagged]

I'm the person that wants more dense and walkable cities, so I'm really curious to learn more about why that will ALWAYS lead to more misery down the road. Honest question, do you have any stuff I can read or terms I can search on?

Re: Has LA cracked the code for building affordable housing?

#30

Post by BadCookie »

cyberax wrote: post #17

I'll save you a click: no. Here's the thing: housing in dense cities will NEVER be affordable. Never. What happened recently (and is happening in other cities like Seattle) is companies pivoting from building "luxury" crappy condos to sweet state-subsdizied housing. These kinds of projects are great for them, they don't need to care about the market demand.

Tokyo manages to remain affordable somehow.

“Two full-time workers earning Tokyo’s minimum wage can comfortably afford the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in six of the city’s 23 wards.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/11/opinion/editorials/tokyo-...

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