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Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage

construction-physics.com

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Re: Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage

#131

Post by sydbarrett74 »

geodel wrote: post #115
rybosworld wrote: post #57

Every single major population center that has distorted (high) housing costs relative to income, also has very strong protections for the existing home owners (NIMBY). "There are no coincidences..." The solution is terrifyingly simple: don't allow existing residents to block new housing developments. If they don't like it, they can move. This will probably never happen in the U.S., because the government no longer fu…

LOL. So people who have been living in an area should have no say but people from planning to move must have a say. > This will probably never happen in the U.S Thank god for that. Maybe checkout in other countries like Canada, UK, France, Germany or even eastern europe, further in Asia on how they are doing on housing front. For sure they couldn't be having housing policies as bad as US.

Canada and the UK have woeful housing shortages. They're not doing much, if any, better than the US is.

Re: Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage

#132

Post by [deleted] »

geodel wrote: post #115
rybosworld wrote: post #57

Every single major population center that has distorted (high) housing costs relative to income, also has very strong protections for the existing home owners (NIMBY). "There are no coincidences..." The solution is terrifyingly simple: don't allow existing residents to block new housing developments. If they don't like it, they can move. This will probably never happen in the U.S., because the government no longer fu…

LOL. So people who have been living in an area should have no say but people from planning to move must have a say. > This will probably never happen in the U.S Thank god for that. Maybe checkout in other countries like Canada, UK, France, Germany or even eastern europe, further in Asia on how they are doing on housing front. For sure they couldn't be having housing policies as bad as US.

[deleted]

Re: Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage

#133

Post by [deleted] »

rybosworld wrote: post #57

Every single major population center that has distorted (high) housing costs relative to income, also has very strong protections for the existing home owners (NIMBY). "There are no coincidences..." The solution is terrifyingly simple: don't allow existing residents to block new housing developments. If they don't like it, they can move. This will probably never happen in the U.S., because the government no longer fu…

[deleted]

Re: Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage

#134

Post by shellygoodman »

ReptileMan wrote: post #101
mrkstu wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, depends on the level of government you're talking about. If it is local, then if local homeowners (who are local voters) don't want the development, it is eminently 'democratic.'

And yet democracy is best described as "Three wolves and sheep deciding what to have for dinner"

Well, I'm convinced! Dictatorship it is then.

Re: Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage

#135

Post by acover »

geodel wrote: post #115
rybosworld wrote: post #57

Every single major population center that has distorted (high) housing costs relative to income, also has very strong protections for the existing home owners (NIMBY). "There are no coincidences..." The solution is terrifyingly simple: don't allow existing residents to block new housing developments. If they don't like it, they can move. This will probably never happen in the U.S., because the government no longer fu…

LOL. So people who have been living in an area should have no say but people from planning to move must have a say. > This will probably never happen in the U.S Thank god for that. Maybe checkout in other countries like Canada, UK, France, Germany or even eastern europe, further in Asia on how they are doing on housing front. For sure they couldn't be having housing policies as bad as US.

How can you fix the incentives so locals actually want densification?

I always liked the idea of more local taxes rather than federal. Then the larger tax base would improve services or do a direct transfer.

Re: Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage

#136

Post by smallmancontrov »

tnel77 wrote: post #78
rybosworld wrote: post #57

Every single major population center that has distorted (high) housing costs relative to income, also has very strong protections for the existing home owners (NIMBY). "There are no coincidences..." The solution is terrifyingly simple: don't allow existing residents to block new housing developments. If they don't like it, they can move. This will probably never happen in the U.S., because the government no longer fu…

A major issue with housing is that it is a primary driver of wealth for many Americans. Obviously, this comes at the expense of our fellow Americans who do not own a home. I was able to buy shortly out of college (1% down loan) so rising home prices don’t impact me as much since my home has also gone up in value. I was able to sell the first house and roll that equity into the next house. As long as it’s the main sto…

[flagged]

Re: Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage

#137

Post by jeffbee »

quickthrowman wrote: post #8
jeffbee wrote: post #5

Not a very convincing article. The fact that mass timber uses more wood is right there in the name. Everyone knows this. The point is you get a better building. The cavities in a wood-framed building cause all manner of problems with respect to heat, draft, cold, damp, and noise. Filling the cavity with solid wood variously solves such problems. All the stuff about the capital cost of making laminated wood is irrelev…

Mass timber isn’t meant to replace stick built buildings that are 5 stories or less, it’s meant to replace reinforced concrete for buildings over 5 stories, up to around ~25 stories [0] [0] https://www.fs.usda.gov/inside-fs/delivering-mission/apply/w...

There are plenty of smaller ones. There's a 5-story one in downtown Oakland, for example.

Re: Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage

#138

Post by BobaFloutist »

tempsy wrote: post #71
mjmahone17 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is absolutely not an oversupply of apartments in my city, nor in Seattle proper. it should be non-controversial to let the market supply as many apartments in the locations people want to be as people are willing to rent. Especially any regulatory changes that enable family sized apartments to be built at relatively lower cost should be encouraged. Even if there were an “oversupply”, if someone could build new…

How is there not an oversupply of rentals in Seattle? I pulled up Zillow Rentals around downtown and there's a comical number of listings available. If you can rent a new construction 1 bed for under $2k a month in a jobs center there is no apartment shortage in your city.

Conventional wisdom is for housing to be "affordable" it needs to be 1/3 of your income. 2000312=72000 a year. 72000/2050 = 35$/h.

Where are grocery clerks, baristas, school teachers, janitors, restaurant workers, etc supposed to live?

Re: Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage

#139

Post by tptacek »

tnel77 wrote: post #78
rybosworld wrote: post #57

Every single major population center that has distorted (high) housing costs relative to income, also has very strong protections for the existing home owners (NIMBY). "There are no coincidences..." The solution is terrifyingly simple: don't allow existing residents to block new housing developments. If they don't like it, they can move. This will probably never happen in the U.S., because the government no longer fu…

A major issue with housing is that it is a primary driver of wealth for many Americans. Obviously, this comes at the expense of our fellow Americans who do not own a home. I was able to buy shortly out of college (1% down loan) so rising home prices don’t impact me as much since my home has also gone up in value. I was able to sell the first house and roll that equity into the next house. As long as it’s the main sto…

Upzoning is a win-win for existing homeowners. Land doesn't get expropriated to build multifamily; it's purchased. Multifamily is a more efficient use of a lot than SFH, so it's purchased at a premium.

NIMBYs worry that the mere existence of nearby multifamily will decrease their home value. In rare and unsympathetic cases (places like Winnetka in Illinois) that may be true. But in the bedroom neighborhoods of big cities and their inner ring suburbs, it's not; allowing missing-middle multifamily will revitalize neighborhoods and help shift the cost burden from SFH property taxes to sales tax (retail follows rooftops).

Re: Mass timber is great, but it will not solve the housing shortage

#140

Post by tptacek »

happyopossum wrote: post #92
rybosworld wrote: post #57

Every single major population center that has distorted (high) housing costs relative to income, also has very strong protections for the existing home owners (NIMBY). "There are no coincidences..." The solution is terrifyingly simple: don't allow existing residents to block new housing developments. If they don't like it, they can move. This will probably never happen in the U.S., because the government no longer fu…

> because the government no longer functions as intended This seems contrary to what you're stating - local government exists to represent the interests of local residents. Protecting those residents from external forces is completely in-line with their mandate. > If they don't like it, they can move. A person who owns land somewhere should have more sway over local politics than a megacorp developer from another sta…

There are limits to the acceptable protections Home Rule local governments can supply, and a growing consensus that single-family zoning is not one of those acceptable protections, which is leading states to preempt local governments on that question.
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