Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Austin’s surge of new housing construction drove down rents

pew.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 1001 posts

Re: Austin’s surge of new housing construction drove down rents

#71

Post by maxerickson »

gtowey wrote: post #63
maxerickson wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a homeowner, I want number to go up. These things push against that. Really, I'd prefer not having policies that tend to push up housing prices or discourage people from moving, but here we are, those types of policies are common.

> As a homeowner, I want number to go up. Which is myopic. As a homeowner, I want cities to be livable and affordable for those who want or have to live there. I don't care if the value of my home changes one cent. It's honestly kind of useless, because it's not like I can sell the house and buy a nicer one. All the houses are more expensive so it's always going to be a lateral trade. It only helps if you sell and mo…

So you are saying you are a reactionary? Did you even try to read my entire comment?

Re: Austin’s surge of new housing construction drove down rents

#72

Post by alephnerd »

rconti wrote: post #11

Meanwhile, California is also trying to build housing near transit, but Menlo Park wants to preserve the character of downtown by preserving dirty, cracked, flat, surface-level parking lots like it's 1950.

Menlo Park isn't comparable to Austin though - Austin's equivalent of Menlo Park would be a country club CDP in the Austin Hills like Rob Roy.

A better comparison would be ATX against San Jose.

Just like how the "rich" residents of Santa Clara county know that you want to live in Campbell, Los Gatos, Menlo Park, Los Altos, Loyola, etc, similarly rich Texans and Austinites live in the Hills.

The reality is the residents of Menlo Park and Rob Roy don't want your type, and in a lot of cases tend to be the same people as there aren't many places left where you can trail run, bike, eat Michelin star ramen, and not pay income tax.

Just because we make good money in tech, it doesn't make us "them". I highly recommend reading the works of Pierre Bourdieu with regards to cultural capital.

Re: Austin’s surge of new housing construction drove down rents

#73

Post by maxerickson »

wbobeirne wrote: post #62
maxerickson wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a homeowner, I want number to go up. These things push against that. Really, I'd prefer not having policies that tend to push up housing prices or discourage people from moving, but here we are, those types of policies are common.

As a home owner in Austin, I want my friends to be able to afford homes too and not feel like they have to move to have a yard and a family. Bring on the new construction.

What do you think the big paragraph at the end meant to convey?

Re: Austin’s surge of new housing construction drove down rents

#74

Post by seanmcdirmid »

matheweis wrote: post #59
atomicnumber3 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, do we just need to nationalize housing construction? If the free market apparently just can't handle it?

It’s not a free market construction issue at all, it’s a regulatory zoning and permitting issue. Read the article and the peer comments here; Austin’s boom came about from reducing regulatory constraints. Nationally remove the artificial restrictions and the supply side will fix itself.

Did Austin really have any constraints holding it back? It’s still Texas. People still look at Houston as the canonical example of a city with no artificial constraints.

Re: Austin’s surge of new housing construction drove down rents

#75

Post by Aurornis »

tkel wrote: post #58
riknos314 wrote: post #4

So glad we don't need to re-write the first chapter of almost every economics 101 textbook!

They also teach you about elasticity in econ 101. It's foolish and anti-intellectual to insist that the housing market has only two factors, while simultaneously condescending about your understanding of economics shows that you really don't understand economics, it's more about your ego.

The parent comment never claimed that the housing market only has two factors. You’re arguing against a strawman of your own creation.

Re: Austin’s surge of new housing construction drove down rents

#76

Post by idontwantthis »

odyssey7 wrote: post #68
rconti wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, in Menlo Park they're just flat surface parking lots, not even multi-story structures. The planned development is multi-story housing with parking underneath. To be fair, I am boycotting the (similar) underground garage over at Springline because they're clearly made only for people in Range Rovers or whatever. They have those AWFUL ticket machines, set too far back (to avoid getting hit) and too high to access…

Is the Bay Area really dealing with ticket machines? The global capital of technology? Just bill by plate or something.

Or develop 12 competing apps that each only work in different lots.

Re: Austin’s surge of new housing construction drove down rents

#78

Post by nzeid »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #9
nemomarx wrote: post #3

Good news - experimental verification of the law of supply and demand! I'm sure the analysis is welcome though and I hope policy makers try to learn from this. We could densify most american cities quite a lot more.

Developers not recouping their investment will discourage less housing in Austin in the future and it will become expensive again. A lot of our current housing shortages are from the build up in 2008 and an implosion of the entire industry (so that crafts people did not really exist for the next need for housing).

What evidence is there that developers won't break even or profit? The demand is clearly there, it's a seller's market.

Re: Austin’s surge of new housing construction drove down rents

#79

Post by kart23 »

the problem in sf is building is incredibly expensive, and projects that have been planned, land acquired, are simply sitting as empty lots because developers don’t have the money.

interest rates for construction loans, reduced funding, labor and material costs, all contribute to the amount of housing built.

there is a bond being debated in the ca senate now that will help by giving loans for construction.

https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/01/2026-housing-agenda/

Re: Austin’s surge of new housing construction drove down rents

#80

Post by epistasis »

odyssey7 wrote: post #68
rconti wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, in Menlo Park they're just flat surface parking lots, not even multi-story structures. The planned development is multi-story housing with parking underneath. To be fair, I am boycotting the (similar) underground garage over at Springline because they're clearly made only for people in Range Rovers or whatever. They have those AWFUL ticket machines, set too far back (to avoid getting hit) and too high to access…

Is the Bay Area really dealing with ticket machines? The global capital of technology? Just bill by plate or something.

The global capital of technology has absolute horrid infrastructure and is not on the forefront of any municipal technologies.

There's a big disconnect from people building new projects and local governance, and it's growing. When tech companies started even providing buses for their employees, because local government is too fractured and incapable of running needed bus routes, and can not coordinate across county and city borders, local activists were extremely upset that tech workers were not driving their personal cars and instead using environments-saving and traffic-reducing transit.

Post reply on HN