Tiny Homes Won’t Fix the Housing Crisis
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Tiny Homes Won’t Fix the Housing Crisis
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Re: Tiny Homes Won’t Fix the Housing Crisis
#2I guess I never realized that tiny homes were supposed to fix the housing crisis? I'm not sure this article really said that they were either. Anyways, I think this is the main idea of the article:
"The imagined owners of tiny homes, in other words, are likely childless and able-bodied, and they likely have at least ten grand to spare (plus, perhaps, the time or resources to build a home) and minimal familial responsibilities. If housing justice is truly our goal, then tiny living leaves a large contingent of people behind."
Re: Tiny Homes Won’t Fix the Housing Crisis
#3I guess I never realized that tiny homes were supposed to fix the housing crisis? I'm not sure this article really said that they were either. Anyways, I think this is the main idea of the article: "The imagined owners of tiny homes, in other words, are likely childless and able-bodied, and they likely have at least ten grand to spare (plus, perhaps, the time or resources to build a home) and minimal familial respons…
I always thought that tiny homes was a rejection of materialism, or a way to live cheaply? Or basically a fancy alternative to a trailer park?
Re: Tiny Homes Won’t Fix the Housing Crisis
#4When someone claims many reasons why a thing is good or bad, the actual reason is often unstated.
“Tiny homes are bad because I like the idea of socialist communes and people won’t give them a try if they can have their own house”
Re: Tiny Homes Won’t Fix the Housing Crisis
#5I don't have a clue what any solution looks like or even what problem is trying to be solved.
Growing up in the USA home "ownership" is always touted as an investment but for example in Japan, it's often more like buying a car. The moment you buy it it's a used house and the price goes down just like a car would. The point being home ownership is viewed differently.
Also, the recent episode of the Flash Forward podcast pondered the idea of guaranteed housing. They complained that 60% of people on minimum wage can't afford a 2 bedroom apartment in the USA but coming from Tokyo my first thought was "why is the standard a 2 bedroom apartment?" There are 100s of thousands of studio apartments all around Tokyo and it's normal to live in one. From $400 a month and up. I'm sure Hong Kong it's even more normal.
Re: Tiny Homes Won’t Fix the Housing Crisis
#6The best solution to the housing crisis ever discovered thus far is widespread remote work. This allows people who don’t want to live in major cities the ability to live anywhere, reducing the cost for those that do want to live in a city.
Re: Tiny Homes Won’t Fix the Housing Crisis
#7There is no housing crisis. U.S. has more than plenty of good quality, large, and more than affordable houses (many of them are probably beyond repair but this is a consequence of their abundance and lack of demand).
Housing crisis is only about the very few already overpopulated spots being hyper-attractive for people to move in because that's where opportunities are. There is no way to "fix" this because even if housing is by some magic affordable, so many people will flock there that commute times will increase beyond survivability and people will pay with their time instead of money (that works in exactly the same way as home prices rise when mortgage fall: this is a free market).
If you want to fix it, you need to stop these places from being attractive, or prevent people from moving. Both sound like a Soviet Union-style dystopia.
It's better to just concede to the fact that housing in attractive areas is a scarce resource for which there is always a competition and most people who are there, simply shouldn't be there, them being there is just a result of their Dunning-Kruger effect.
There is a middle ground of "regulated rental" but this is precisely a compromise, a middle ground between buying and market renting. Buying a place in attractive location is winning a lottery: if place is ALREADY attractive, the rental yield there is low because price to buy is sky high due to countless trillions of printed money sloshing around, so it makes no sense buying, it only makes sense buying before it gets attractive, but it can't be predicted. Regulated rental gives you same opportunity: rent now and if in 30 years the place became attractive, you are renting at a small fraction of real cost, you won. This is not a solution, it is just a step halfway to the Soviet Union where the Party decided where you should live.
Re: Tiny Homes Won’t Fix the Housing Crisis
#8I don't have a clue what any solution looks like or even what problem is trying to be solved. Growing up in the USA home "ownership" is always touted as an investment but for example in Japan, it's often more like buying a car. The moment you buy it it's a used house and the price goes down just like a car would. The point being home ownership is viewed differently. Also, the recent episode of the Flash Forward podca…
One important difference to note in your Japan comparison is that Japan is experiencing population decline, which would explain weak demand and decreasing prices. Home ownership as an investment in North America has been driven by demand exceeding supply, among other factors, which make a difference from an investment perspective.
Re: Tiny Homes Won’t Fix the Housing Crisis
#9The idea that tiny homes are the solution to the housing crisis ignores the fact that the housing crisis is really a land-in-desirable-places crisis, and a result of a natural pyramid scheme which has emerged due to population growth and increasing popularity of cities (amplified by low interest rates). Tiny houses don't fix that problem.
Re: Tiny Homes Won’t Fix the Housing Crisis
#10I don't have a clue what any solution looks like or even what problem is trying to be solved. Growing up in the USA home "ownership" is always touted as an investment but for example in Japan, it's often more like buying a car. The moment you buy it it's a used house and the price goes down just like a car would. The point being home ownership is viewed differently. Also, the recent episode of the Flash Forward podca…
Wait, so does that mean it's relatively cheap to rent or buy in Japan? I know Japan is not a cheap country, but I was wondering relative to other Western countries.
I might want to research if I'd want to live in Japan for a couple of years then, and simply become a remote worker.