The Cost of Living/Housing Crisis
August 18, 2023 6:19 AM Subscribe
Here's why Americans can't stop living paycheck to paycheck - "The typical worker takes home $3,308 per month after taxes and benefits, based on the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But when you take a look at the cost of some of the most essential expenses today, it's easy to see why consumers feel strained." [link-heavy FPP! :]
how the (new home) market is responding...
July Housing Starts: Record Number of Multi-Family Housing Units Under Construction - "Currently there are 1,003 thousand multi-family units under construction. This breaks the record set in July 1973 of multi-family units being built for the baby-boom generation. For multi-family, construction delays are a significant factor. The completion of these units should help with rent pressure... The weakness in 2022 and early 2023 was in single family starts. However, single family starts have now picked up a little, helped by limited existing home inventory."
how some individuals are coping...
The Golden Girls approach: Buying homes together amid high prices - "According to a new survey from LendingTree, an eye-opening 29% of Americans are open to the idea. Of those potential homebuyers, 63% said they would consider buying with a family member who is not their spouse, and 57% would do so with a good friend or current roommate."
at the city, county and state level...
One Nassau County Has a Housing Crisis, the Other Nassau County Has a Solution [ungated] - "Northeast Florida is booming and making room for new arrivals. New York's Long Island is frozen in the 20th century."
The State That Could Fix the Housing Crisis [ungated] - "How Montana performed a housing miracle."
Too Many Vacant Lots, Not Enough Housing: The U.S. Real-Estate Puzzle [ungated] - "In Chicago, Pittsburgh and Detroit neighborhoods where houses are surrounded by empty lots, authorities are starting to bulldoze obstacles to development."
cautionary tales...
The Man Who Made the Suburbs White - "J.C. Nichols pioneered racial covenants in Kansas City's surrounding enclaves. The country is still grappling with them." Urban Highways Cost Billions in Lost Home Value, Property Taxes - "A new study quantifies the monetary loss of interstates that displaced residents and neighborhoods in Washington, DC and Atlanta."
other technical/technocratic solutions...
Can Office-to-Housing Conversions Dent the Housing Crisis? - "So, can office-to-housing conversions play a material role in solving the housing crisis? And will these conversions bring new energy to depressed downtowns? To gain insights into these big questions, NerdWallet turned to Tracy Hadden Loh, a fellow with The Brookings Institution’s Brookings Metro — a nonprofit think tank — and co-author of the paper 'Myths about converting offices into housing — and what can really revitalize downtowns.'"
Converting Brown Offices to Green Apartments [pdf] - "The conversion of brown office buildings to green apartments can contribute towards a solution to three pressing issues: oversupply of office in a hybrid-and-remote-work world, shortage of housing, and excessive greenhouse gas emissions. We propose a set of criteria to identify commercial office properties that are are physically suitable for conversion, yielding about 11% of all office buildings across the U.S. We present a pro-forma real estate model that identifies parameters under which these conversions are financially viable. We highlight several policy levers available to federal, state, and local governments that could accelerate the conversion, and that may be necessary should policymakers desire the creation of affordable housing. We highlight the role that the Inflation Reduction Act could play."
Can Tiny House Villages Be a Homelessness Fix? - "Portland, Oregon, has been a pioneer in using the trendy mini-homes as homeless shelters, but debates about the effectiveness of the approach persist."
how 'bout a raise?
Democrats can end poverty in America by fixing this one program - "The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program is a little-known program in the United States. But if reformed, it can become the program that helps end poverty in America."
California's on the cusp of transforming America's fast food industry — again - "As a labor stronghold, California may be best positioned to be the first state in the country to deliver the long-elusive goal of unionized fast food workers."
US Women Miss Out on $627 Billion by Not Getting Paid for Caregiving - "Women average about 52 minutes per day caring for children and other family members, including those outside the home, while men spend about 26 minutes a day on care, an analysis published Monday by the National Partnership for Women & Families, a working families research and advocacy group, shows. Assuming they'd earn the mean wage of $14.55 per hour for child-care workers or home health aides, women would each bring in an extra $4,600 annually if their caregiving work was compensated, while men would receive about $2,300."
surviving/thriving comparisons...
Are You Rich? Calculate the Best US Cities to Live in for Your Salary - "The dissatisfaction of the mass affluent might seem like a rich person's problem, but it hints at a potential breakdown at the heart of American capitalism. Much has been written about the end of upward mobility in the US and how hard it is these days to build wealth. But if those who have actually made it don't feel like they have, where does that leave the rest of us?"
Wealth, social class impact how Gen Z plan their future - "University can offer opportunities to UK students — but not everyone thinks they can afford to take that chance." elsewhere...
Country Garden: How bad is China's property crisis? - "China's property sector accounts for more than half of global new home sales and home building, and it is the largest asset class in the world, with an estimated market value of around $62 trillion... China's Politburo, a top decision-making body of the ruling Communist Party, fuelled speculation more stimulus is on the way when it omitted the often-repeated phrase that 'houses are for living in, not for speculation' from a statement in late July in which it pledged to adjust property policies in a timely manner. But so far no bold stimulus measures have been announced, and views are split among industry experts whether they will eventuate." (China investors jump into municipal bonds, hopes of state support outweigh debt woes)
The median monthly rent in the U.S. was $2,029 as of June, according to Redfin. That amount already accounts for about 61% of the median take-home pay.
Meanwhile, the Council for Community and Economic Research reported that the median mortgage payment for a 2,400-square-foot house was $1,957 per month during the first quarter of 2023, which accounts for about 59% of the median take-home pay...
Combine that with the average $690.75 Americans spend each month on food and out-of-pocket health expenditures that cost the average American $96.42 monthly, and you get a total expense of $2,816.17 for renters and $2,744.17 for homeowners.
That amount already accounts for just over 85% of the median take-home pay for average American renters and almost 83% for an average homeowner. This is excluding other essential expenses such as transportation, child care and debt payments.
- Child care is about to get even more expensive as pandemic funds end
- Why Child-Care Prices Are Rising at Nearly Twice the Overall Inflation Rate
how the (new home) market is responding...
July Housing Starts: Record Number of Multi-Family Housing Units Under Construction - "Currently there are 1,003 thousand multi-family units under construction. This breaks the record set in July 1973 of multi-family units being built for the baby-boom generation. For multi-family, construction delays are a significant factor. The completion of these units should help with rent pressure... The weakness in 2022 and early 2023 was in single family starts. However, single family starts have now picked up a little, helped by limited existing home inventory."
how some individuals are coping...
The Golden Girls approach: Buying homes together amid high prices - "According to a new survey from LendingTree, an eye-opening 29% of Americans are open to the idea. Of those potential homebuyers, 63% said they would consider buying with a family member who is not their spouse, and 57% would do so with a good friend or current roommate."
at the city, county and state level...
One Nassau County Has a Housing Crisis, the Other Nassau County Has a Solution [ungated] - "Northeast Florida is booming and making room for new arrivals. New York's Long Island is frozen in the 20th century."
The State That Could Fix the Housing Crisis [ungated] - "How Montana performed a housing miracle."
Too Many Vacant Lots, Not Enough Housing: The U.S. Real-Estate Puzzle [ungated] - "In Chicago, Pittsburgh and Detroit neighborhoods where houses are surrounded by empty lots, authorities are starting to bulldoze obstacles to development."
cautionary tales...
The Man Who Made the Suburbs White - "J.C. Nichols pioneered racial covenants in Kansas City's surrounding enclaves. The country is still grappling with them." Urban Highways Cost Billions in Lost Home Value, Property Taxes - "A new study quantifies the monetary loss of interstates that displaced residents and neighborhoods in Washington, DC and Atlanta."
other technical/technocratic solutions...
Can Office-to-Housing Conversions Dent the Housing Crisis? - "So, can office-to-housing conversions play a material role in solving the housing crisis? And will these conversions bring new energy to depressed downtowns? To gain insights into these big questions, NerdWallet turned to Tracy Hadden Loh, a fellow with The Brookings Institution’s Brookings Metro — a nonprofit think tank — and co-author of the paper 'Myths about converting offices into housing — and what can really revitalize downtowns.'"
Converting Brown Offices to Green Apartments [pdf] - "The conversion of brown office buildings to green apartments can contribute towards a solution to three pressing issues: oversupply of office in a hybrid-and-remote-work world, shortage of housing, and excessive greenhouse gas emissions. We propose a set of criteria to identify commercial office properties that are are physically suitable for conversion, yielding about 11% of all office buildings across the U.S. We present a pro-forma real estate model that identifies parameters under which these conversions are financially viable. We highlight several policy levers available to federal, state, and local governments that could accelerate the conversion, and that may be necessary should policymakers desire the creation of affordable housing. We highlight the role that the Inflation Reduction Act could play."
Can Tiny House Villages Be a Homelessness Fix? - "Portland, Oregon, has been a pioneer in using the trendy mini-homes as homeless shelters, but debates about the effectiveness of the approach persist."
how 'bout a raise?
Democrats can end poverty in America by fixing this one program - "The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program is a little-known program in the United States. But if reformed, it can become the program that helps end poverty in America."
- The profound impact of giving American families a little more cash
- More state child tax credits are expanding cash assistance for families
California's on the cusp of transforming America's fast food industry — again - "As a labor stronghold, California may be best positioned to be the first state in the country to deliver the long-elusive goal of unionized fast food workers."
US Women Miss Out on $627 Billion by Not Getting Paid for Caregiving - "Women average about 52 minutes per day caring for children and other family members, including those outside the home, while men spend about 26 minutes a day on care, an analysis published Monday by the National Partnership for Women & Families, a working families research and advocacy group, shows. Assuming they'd earn the mean wage of $14.55 per hour for child-care workers or home health aides, women would each bring in an extra $4,600 annually if their caregiving work was compensated, while men would receive about $2,300."
surviving/thriving comparisons...
Are You Rich? Calculate the Best US Cities to Live in for Your Salary - "The dissatisfaction of the mass affluent might seem like a rich person's problem, but it hints at a potential breakdown at the heart of American capitalism. Much has been written about the end of upward mobility in the US and how hard it is these days to build wealth. But if those who have actually made it don't feel like they have, where does that leave the rest of us?"
Wealth, social class impact how Gen Z plan their future - "University can offer opportunities to UK students — but not everyone thinks they can afford to take that chance." elsewhere...
Country Garden: How bad is China's property crisis? - "China's property sector accounts for more than half of global new home sales and home building, and it is the largest asset class in the world, with an estimated market value of around $62 trillion... China's Politburo, a top decision-making body of the ruling Communist Party, fuelled speculation more stimulus is on the way when it omitted the often-repeated phrase that 'houses are for living in, not for speculation' from a statement in late July in which it pledged to adjust property policies in a timely manner. But so far no bold stimulus measures have been announced, and views are split among industry experts whether they will eventuate." (China investors jump into municipal bonds, hopes of state support outweigh debt woes)
I know it will never happen, but there needs to be some sort of federal rent control
My position is a little more extreme, that rentier-obtained income should be taxed independently at very high marginal rates like 80%+, as should the property taxes on empty homes, purely as a social safety measure. Making some side money renting out a room or a basement apartment isn't a big deal, but being a landlord should be decisively less profitable than almost anything else that might be done with that money.
posted by mhoye at 6:58 AM on August 18, 2023 [86 favorites]
My position is a little more extreme, that rentier-obtained income should be taxed independently at very high marginal rates like 80%+, as should the property taxes on empty homes, purely as a social safety measure. Making some side money renting out a room or a basement apartment isn't a big deal, but being a landlord should be decisively less profitable than almost anything else that might be done with that money.
posted by mhoye at 6:58 AM on August 18, 2023 [86 favorites]
Are You Rich? Calculate the Best US Cities to Live in for Your Salary - "The dissatisfaction of the mass affluent might seem like a rich person's problem, but it hints at a potential breakdown at the heart of American capitalism. Much has been written about the end of upward mobility in the US and how hard it is these days to build wealth. But if those who have actually made it don't feel like they have, where does that leave the rest of us?"
I always find these articles about objectively well-off people who feel precarious or even feel poor fascinating. I'm at best at the very lowest tier of that, and way under most of their examples, but I don't feel precarious in the same way that the people in the article describe. However, I don't feel capital-S Secure, either, though, since safety nets are thin here and a few pieces of bad luck can massively change someone's position overnight.
Generation X Is Staring Down Retirement, and Student Loan Debt
I read this article yesterday and was hoping someone would post it here. Although specifically about Gen-X, there's a much larger point in that article about the impact that restarting student loan repayments in a month or so is going to cause to everyone with student loan debt. For a lot of people this will tip them from "doing ok" to "not really doing ok," given how other costs have risen over the past few years. There's also a specific point about Gen X as the harbinger for younger generations, since Gen X arrived just as pensions were ending and public funding for education was slashed. Those changes have continued, putting each succeeding generation further behind the curve when starting out.
After reading that article, I used one of those historical investment calculators to look at what would have happened if instead of graduating with student debt, I had instead been able to put that same amount into the S&P 500 and leave it there. The ansser was depressing, and I graduated with what were fairly modest student loans. For me, if I had been able to do that, it would have grown to the amount of a solid downpayment on a very expensive house, or to buy a house outright in one of those places where housing is still relatively cheap. I got a degree out of it, so I'm not mad, but it really brought home to me how much your starting position matters in life.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:02 AM on August 18, 2023 [20 favorites]
I always find these articles about objectively well-off people who feel precarious or even feel poor fascinating. I'm at best at the very lowest tier of that, and way under most of their examples, but I don't feel precarious in the same way that the people in the article describe. However, I don't feel capital-S Secure, either, though, since safety nets are thin here and a few pieces of bad luck can massively change someone's position overnight.
Generation X Is Staring Down Retirement, and Student Loan Debt
I read this article yesterday and was hoping someone would post it here. Although specifically about Gen-X, there's a much larger point in that article about the impact that restarting student loan repayments in a month or so is going to cause to everyone with student loan debt. For a lot of people this will tip them from "doing ok" to "not really doing ok," given how other costs have risen over the past few years. There's also a specific point about Gen X as the harbinger for younger generations, since Gen X arrived just as pensions were ending and public funding for education was slashed. Those changes have continued, putting each succeeding generation further behind the curve when starting out.
After reading that article, I used one of those historical investment calculators to look at what would have happened if instead of graduating with student debt, I had instead been able to put that same amount into the S&P 500 and leave it there. The ansser was depressing, and I graduated with what were fairly modest student loans. For me, if I had been able to do that, it would have grown to the amount of a solid downpayment on a very expensive house, or to buy a house outright in one of those places where housing is still relatively cheap. I got a degree out of it, so I'm not mad, but it really brought home to me how much your starting position matters in life.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:02 AM on August 18, 2023 [20 favorites]
And these things don't lead to "just" anxiety or stress, we are at the highest (estimated) rate of deaths of despair ever in the US.
Despair, as the dream is seen to be nothing more.
posted by Slackermagee at 7:02 AM on August 18, 2023 [6 favorites]
Despair, as the dream is seen to be nothing more.
posted by Slackermagee at 7:02 AM on August 18, 2023 [6 favorites]
In more of the “never gonna happen” category, a real overhaul of the drivers for determining poverty needs to be done. A cell phone and/or internet access is mandatory these days, for everything from applying for and responding to potential jobs, to 2FA for accessing bank accounts. Auto insurance should be factored in, given that the majority of Americans do not have access to public transportation that does not first require driving to a place where you can access public transportation. Health insurance is mandatory, and we are not even getting into utilities - that, if you are renting, you cannot mitigate by (a) mitigate by installing energy efficient HVAC systems, or consolidating to all electric (last apartment, I was paying over $140 a month in only “service fees” because the apartment had a gas stove and oil heating on top of electricity service). It adds up.
Tax rates should also go up for each subsequent home or rental unit you own, and in a way that bypasses sheltering assets owned via a series of independent LLCs.
Seriously, the way rental properties are allowed to be managed today is a race to the bottom. Yes, incomes need to align with real costs. But reining in housing abominations is the biggest step right now toward balancing the ship.
posted by Silvery Fish at 7:58 AM on August 18, 2023 [30 favorites]
Tax rates should also go up for each subsequent home or rental unit you own, and in a way that bypasses sheltering assets owned via a series of independent LLCs.
Seriously, the way rental properties are allowed to be managed today is a race to the bottom. Yes, incomes need to align with real costs. But reining in housing abominations is the biggest step right now toward balancing the ship.
posted by Silvery Fish at 7:58 AM on August 18, 2023 [30 favorites]
It's cool how capitalism winning is indistinguishable from communism failing.
posted by Reyturner at 8:04 AM on August 18, 2023 [49 favorites]
posted by Reyturner at 8:04 AM on August 18, 2023 [49 favorites]
One Nassau County Has a Housing Crisis, the Other Nassau County Has a Solution
“We are under siege by developers and bad ideas,” said a fifth-generation resident. One woman said she was told that “migrants, pedophiles or criminals” would be moving into ADUs. Residents warned the plan would change the “character” and “complexion” of Huntington, which is 82% White.
That quote is from Huntington, NY (so, not actually Nassau County -- great job, Bloomberg -- but close enough), and it's perfectly representative of the conversation about new housing on Long Island. Gen X and Boomer NIMBYs feel that every black or brown face in their neighborhood means knocking another ten grand off the value of their house. The refrain is always "don't turn Long Island into Queens!" which is funny as hell, because have you seen real estate prices in Queens lately?
I am really lucky to live in a neighborhood where we do have apartment buildings, where we do have a number of multi-family homes, and where I could do a whole lot of my errands on foot or by bike if I wanted to. There is still a huge (huge! this cannot be understated) contingent of loud, racist schmucks who think that the Latinos around the corner are a threat to their Suburban Way of Life, but it's a pretty mixed, dense area, by the local standards.
We keep building even more housing (they razed a row of single-family homes for apartment buildings this year), and my house has still appreciated in value by more than $200k over the last decade (which I would gladly trade for an even more urban-feeling neighborhood, truthfully).
In conclusion, fuck racists, fuck NIMBYs, fuck the exclusionary zoning that keeps housing so expensive here.
posted by uncleozzy at 8:17 AM on August 18, 2023 [20 favorites]
“We are under siege by developers and bad ideas,” said a fifth-generation resident. One woman said she was told that “migrants, pedophiles or criminals” would be moving into ADUs. Residents warned the plan would change the “character” and “complexion” of Huntington, which is 82% White.
That quote is from Huntington, NY (so, not actually Nassau County -- great job, Bloomberg -- but close enough), and it's perfectly representative of the conversation about new housing on Long Island. Gen X and Boomer NIMBYs feel that every black or brown face in their neighborhood means knocking another ten grand off the value of their house. The refrain is always "don't turn Long Island into Queens!" which is funny as hell, because have you seen real estate prices in Queens lately?
I am really lucky to live in a neighborhood where we do have apartment buildings, where we do have a number of multi-family homes, and where I could do a whole lot of my errands on foot or by bike if I wanted to. There is still a huge (huge! this cannot be understated) contingent of loud, racist schmucks who think that the Latinos around the corner are a threat to their Suburban Way of Life, but it's a pretty mixed, dense area, by the local standards.
We keep building even more housing (they razed a row of single-family homes for apartment buildings this year), and my house has still appreciated in value by more than $200k over the last decade (which I would gladly trade for an even more urban-feeling neighborhood, truthfully).
In conclusion, fuck racists, fuck NIMBYs, fuck the exclusionary zoning that keeps housing so expensive here.
posted by uncleozzy at 8:17 AM on August 18, 2023 [20 favorites]
This is sort of timely because I am having a laugh over in my local subreddit about an employer complaining about "no one wants to work anymore," and so many folks are like, "When the COL has risen so drastically, being mad that no one wants to work for a pittance is ridiculous."
I have 20+ years experience in admin (medical and financial) and when I browse jobs to look for something new, at least 85% of places want to start you at $16.55/hr (current minimum wage in Ontario) even with that level of experience. Absolutely not. I am definitely getting more vocal about knowing my worth in terms of what the fuck I do.
People aren't lazy. They just don't want to have work more than one job to stay afloat. Hell, at least three of the full time girls I work with at a family medicine have weekend gigs to pick up extra income, and the family medicine clinic is considered one of the better paying jobs in my town. That ain't right.
posted by Kitteh at 8:18 AM on August 18, 2023 [36 favorites]
I have 20+ years experience in admin (medical and financial) and when I browse jobs to look for something new, at least 85% of places want to start you at $16.55/hr (current minimum wage in Ontario) even with that level of experience. Absolutely not. I am definitely getting more vocal about knowing my worth in terms of what the fuck I do.
People aren't lazy. They just don't want to have work more than one job to stay afloat. Hell, at least three of the full time girls I work with at a family medicine have weekend gigs to pick up extra income, and the family medicine clinic is considered one of the better paying jobs in my town. That ain't right.
posted by Kitteh at 8:18 AM on August 18, 2023 [36 favorites]
I keep thinking the Biden campaign and DNC are missing a huge opportunity in not campaigning on an aggressive platform of reducing housing costs with federal intervention if he wins a second term and a congressional majority. It's such low hanging fruit.
posted by spitbull at 8:35 AM on August 18, 2023 [25 favorites]
posted by spitbull at 8:35 AM on August 18, 2023 [25 favorites]
The political problem with "fixing" the housing crisis is that it'll destroy vast amounts of middle class homeowner "wealth" by reducing property values (or even just reducing the rate at which they are rising) and I'm not sure how you do that in a system calibrated to value property rights über alles.
posted by Reyturner at 8:45 AM on August 18, 2023 [25 favorites]
posted by Reyturner at 8:45 AM on August 18, 2023 [25 favorites]
Little tired of all these articles describing all the contusions and bruises and lacerations and broken bones and dizziness and blood loss and inability to feed myself or take care of my children or get a job or find secure housing or even get up off the ground without mentioning the fucking boot on my neck.
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:57 AM on August 18, 2023 [39 favorites]
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:57 AM on August 18, 2023 [39 favorites]
I just want to applaud the amount of work that went into this post. Amazing!
posted by joannemerriam at 8:58 AM on August 18, 2023 [19 favorites]
posted by joannemerriam at 8:58 AM on August 18, 2023 [19 favorites]
Just wanted to say thanks for the link-heavy FPP heads-up! :)
posted by tinydancer at 9:00 AM on August 18, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by tinydancer at 9:00 AM on August 18, 2023 [6 favorites]
The political problem with "fixing" the housing crisis is that it'll destroy vast amounts of middle class homeowner "wealth" by reducing property values (or even just reducing the rate at which they are rising) and I'm not sure how you do that in a system calibrated to value property rights über alles.
As someone who just saw his property value (and property taxes) skyrocket purely due to market bullshit, I would be perfectly happy with that increase going away. The "wealth" that increase "represents" is illusory, as the only way I could access it is by selling my house (which I have no desire to do.)
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:13 AM on August 18, 2023 [24 favorites]
As someone who just saw his property value (and property taxes) skyrocket purely due to market bullshit, I would be perfectly happy with that increase going away. The "wealth" that increase "represents" is illusory, as the only way I could access it is by selling my house (which I have no desire to do.)
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:13 AM on August 18, 2023 [24 favorites]
The political problem with "fixing" the housing crisis is that it'll destroy vast amounts of middle class homeowner "wealth" by reducing property values (or even just reducing the rate at which they are rising) and I'm not sure how you do that in a system calibrated to value property rights über alles.
The system doesn't particularly value property rights. In fact, an appeals court just shot down local rules in New Orleans about short term rentals/ ADUs that prevent out-of-state ownership was found in violation of the commerce clause, which was also a requirement in many other places.
NIMBYism at its worst also limits property rights as small numbers of 'local' property owners basically get an unelected and unearned primary say in city planning.
So the Feds should step in and they could easily sell it as a return to 'fair' property rights, rights that people had in the past. The majority of the people in the US actually support that.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:15 AM on August 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
The system doesn't particularly value property rights. In fact, an appeals court just shot down local rules in New Orleans about short term rentals/ ADUs that prevent out-of-state ownership was found in violation of the commerce clause, which was also a requirement in many other places.
NIMBYism at its worst also limits property rights as small numbers of 'local' property owners basically get an unelected and unearned primary say in city planning.
So the Feds should step in and they could easily sell it as a return to 'fair' property rights, rights that people had in the past. The majority of the people in the US actually support that.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:15 AM on August 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
The majority of the people in the US actually support that. The majority of voters, too?
posted by Selena777 at 9:21 AM on August 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Selena777 at 9:21 AM on August 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
The majority of the people in the US actually support that. The majority of voters, too?
Yes, actually - when density policy gets a fair vote, it's supported by the polity. NIMBYs aren't actually that popular - there's a reason why their success tends to be predicated on controlling arcane processes, and it's why they tend to skew white, wealthy, and older - they're the people who gave the ability to manipulate those arcane processes.
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:30 AM on August 18, 2023 [5 favorites]
Yes, actually - when density policy gets a fair vote, it's supported by the polity. NIMBYs aren't actually that popular - there's a reason why their success tends to be predicated on controlling arcane processes, and it's why they tend to skew white, wealthy, and older - they're the people who gave the ability to manipulate those arcane processes.
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:30 AM on August 18, 2023 [5 favorites]
I would be perfectly happy with that increase going away.
Same. We’ve had twins since we bought our 2br apartment to raise our 1st child in, and while our apt price has gone up over the pandemic, so has everything else, only more so. It would have been better for us financially if our apartment had lost a ton of value, even if that meant losing most of our equity, since bigger places are just a ridiculous multiple of our salary.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 9:54 AM on August 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
Same. We’ve had twins since we bought our 2br apartment to raise our 1st child in, and while our apt price has gone up over the pandemic, so has everything else, only more so. It would have been better for us financially if our apartment had lost a ton of value, even if that meant losing most of our equity, since bigger places are just a ridiculous multiple of our salary.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 9:54 AM on August 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
If memory serves it was around twenty years ago now that I first discovered Henry George’s thesis on real estate and natural opportunity/wealth in general.
What didn’t make much sense before then made perfect sense, albeit it was much uglier as all the received fairy tales about markets and freedoms fell away.
Last night on a lark I calculated how much rent I’ve paid in my adult life since 1986. $200,000, or $700/mo on average before moving into my current digs in 2011.
I didn’t cause $700 worth of depreciation each month, rather, that was the fee charged to keep the next tenant from taking the lease.
Thankfully, I only had “corporate” landlords for 6 of those years, 1 in LA and 5 in the SF Bay Area, so most of that rent went to on-premises landlords actually sharing their living spaces, which in the scheme of things is not the worst thing IME.
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 9:57 AM on August 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
What didn’t make much sense before then made perfect sense, albeit it was much uglier as all the received fairy tales about markets and freedoms fell away.
Last night on a lark I calculated how much rent I’ve paid in my adult life since 1986. $200,000, or $700/mo on average before moving into my current digs in 2011.
I didn’t cause $700 worth of depreciation each month, rather, that was the fee charged to keep the next tenant from taking the lease.
Thankfully, I only had “corporate” landlords for 6 of those years, 1 in LA and 5 in the SF Bay Area, so most of that rent went to on-premises landlords actually sharing their living spaces, which in the scheme of things is not the worst thing IME.
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 9:57 AM on August 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
The political problem with "fixing" the housing crisis is that it'll destroy vast amounts of middle class homeowner "wealth" by reducing property values (or even just reducing the rate at which they are rising).
We're not likely to come up with anything that has such a dramatic, immediate effect on prices, unfortunately.
Also, I doubt it's such a zero-sum game: a lot of the new housing will be duplexes, n-plexes, apartments, houses on smaller lots, etc. That can help with overall affordability without necessarily immediately tanking the prices of older single-family homes, on probably larger lots.
posted by bfields at 10:02 AM on August 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
We're not likely to come up with anything that has such a dramatic, immediate effect on prices, unfortunately.
Also, I doubt it's such a zero-sum game: a lot of the new housing will be duplexes, n-plexes, apartments, houses on smaller lots, etc. That can help with overall affordability without necessarily immediately tanking the prices of older single-family homes, on probably larger lots.
posted by bfields at 10:02 AM on August 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
As someone who just saw his property value (and property taxes) skyrocket purely due to market bullshit, I would be perfectly happy with that increase going away. The "wealth" that increase "represents" is illusory, as the only way I could access it is by selling my house (which I have no desire to do.)
Thanks for bringing this up - I'd be curious to know what percentage of homeowners fit into this category (wish there was more reporting on it). When I lived in New Orleans, this was a major issue for a lot of middle-class people who had bought their homes 10+ years ago, which due to rapidly rising property values now had property taxes that some were struggling to afford. More than one person in a place I volunteered was considering whether the time had come to sell their home, not because they wanted to, but because they weren't sure they could afford not to - and given how that city has gone lately, a good chance that it would be a company buying it up and turning it into an AirBnB.
posted by coffeecat at 10:11 AM on August 18, 2023 [6 favorites]
Thanks for bringing this up - I'd be curious to know what percentage of homeowners fit into this category (wish there was more reporting on it). When I lived in New Orleans, this was a major issue for a lot of middle-class people who had bought their homes 10+ years ago, which due to rapidly rising property values now had property taxes that some were struggling to afford. More than one person in a place I volunteered was considering whether the time had come to sell their home, not because they wanted to, but because they weren't sure they could afford not to - and given how that city has gone lately, a good chance that it would be a company buying it up and turning it into an AirBnB.
posted by coffeecat at 10:11 AM on August 18, 2023 [6 favorites]
Thank you for this great, thoughtfully crafted collection of stories, kliuless.
I especially appreciate the child care items. I've been trying to explain to an acquaintance how much the lack of child care has affected the ability of people to return to work.
Thank you!
posted by kristi at 10:11 AM on August 18, 2023 [5 favorites]
I especially appreciate the child care items. I've been trying to explain to an acquaintance how much the lack of child care has affected the ability of people to return to work.
Thank you!
posted by kristi at 10:11 AM on August 18, 2023 [5 favorites]
Are You Rich? Calculate the Best US Cities to Live in for Your Salary
That article ignores one absolutely enormous detail - that the salary for various positions rises and falls along with the cost of living when you go from place to place.
I'm currently making $78K (or at least interviewing for positions that make about that much) as an EA in the New York area. That's about average for EAs in the area. But if I were to move to Wichita, Kansas, say - the average EA salary is only about $50K. So while I would "feel richer" on a 78K salary if I moved to Wichita, I would also be losing that 78K salary anyway, so...what actually changed for me, aside from now I live in Wichita instead of New York?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:44 AM on August 18, 2023 [8 favorites]
That article ignores one absolutely enormous detail - that the salary for various positions rises and falls along with the cost of living when you go from place to place.
I'm currently making $78K (or at least interviewing for positions that make about that much) as an EA in the New York area. That's about average for EAs in the area. But if I were to move to Wichita, Kansas, say - the average EA salary is only about $50K. So while I would "feel richer" on a 78K salary if I moved to Wichita, I would also be losing that 78K salary anyway, so...what actually changed for me, aside from now I live in Wichita instead of New York?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:44 AM on August 18, 2023 [8 favorites]
This post is timely, as I'm writing up my monthly SSI and SSDI summary report for my job.
If y'all don't know much about SSI, understand that the asset limit rules state you cannot qualify for payments if you own more than $2000 in countable assets per person, or $3000 per eligible couple.
That limit was set in place in 1989 and hasn't changed since then. So, if you apply for SSI and get those payments, you can never have more than $2,000 in your bank account. You can never realistically own 2 cars. You can never open a savings account and grow your money. A Roth IRA? Nope. Inherit some money when a family member dies? You just lost your benefits!
But wait, there's more. TANF, SNAP and other forms of federal or state assistance count as monthly income under the SSI program's rules. You can't have more than $1,470 worth of "income" and get SSI -- here's some other things that they'll also count against you:
- child support
- alimony
- "in-kind support" -- this means if you live rent-free with a relative, they count a portion of the relative's monthly mortgage or rent payments towards your income limit
- free meals from your church, free rides to and from the doctor from a family member, money from selling your wedding ring? Yep, that all counts as income, too.
The max SSI payment before they take out your Medicaid deductible is $914/person, or $1,371/married couple. After deductions, though, as of this month, the average SSI payment nationwide is as follows:
- $795.27 per month to children younger than 18 (these are mostly children with profound disabilities that will need daily care for life, children in the foster-care system, or those born blind; SSI benefits automatically cut off at 18 unless they re-apply as an adult and continue to meet all program rules/limitations until their eventual deaths)
- $717.97 per month to blind and disabled SSI recipients aged 18-64
- $553.16 per month to seniors aged 65 and older
SSI comes out of the general tax fund, not the Social Security trust fund, so it has zero impact financially on America's biggest retirement savings program.
There are likely many MeFites who would benefit hugely from overhauling the SSI program and bringing its countable asset limits up to $10,000 (what it should be now, accounting for historic inflation rates). Many SSI recipients receive overpayment letters for accidentally going over these limits in continuing "resource tests" they must undergo every 3-7 years to keep their benefits.
When that happens, the SSA sends a letter demanding you repay every dollar of benefits they "accidentally" paid you in SSI. If you don't or can't repay it, they terminate your payments.
I wholeheartedly support any effort to successfully overhaul this program and improve the lives of nearly 7.5 million current SSI beneficiaries.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 10:45 AM on August 18, 2023 [54 favorites]
If y'all don't know much about SSI, understand that the asset limit rules state you cannot qualify for payments if you own more than $2000 in countable assets per person, or $3000 per eligible couple.
That limit was set in place in 1989 and hasn't changed since then. So, if you apply for SSI and get those payments, you can never have more than $2,000 in your bank account. You can never realistically own 2 cars. You can never open a savings account and grow your money. A Roth IRA? Nope. Inherit some money when a family member dies? You just lost your benefits!
But wait, there's more. TANF, SNAP and other forms of federal or state assistance count as monthly income under the SSI program's rules. You can't have more than $1,470 worth of "income" and get SSI -- here's some other things that they'll also count against you:
- child support
- alimony
- "in-kind support" -- this means if you live rent-free with a relative, they count a portion of the relative's monthly mortgage or rent payments towards your income limit
- free meals from your church, free rides to and from the doctor from a family member, money from selling your wedding ring? Yep, that all counts as income, too.
The max SSI payment before they take out your Medicaid deductible is $914/person, or $1,371/married couple. After deductions, though, as of this month, the average SSI payment nationwide is as follows:
- $795.27 per month to children younger than 18 (these are mostly children with profound disabilities that will need daily care for life, children in the foster-care system, or those born blind; SSI benefits automatically cut off at 18 unless they re-apply as an adult and continue to meet all program rules/limitations until their eventual deaths)
- $717.97 per month to blind and disabled SSI recipients aged 18-64
- $553.16 per month to seniors aged 65 and older
SSI comes out of the general tax fund, not the Social Security trust fund, so it has zero impact financially on America's biggest retirement savings program.
There are likely many MeFites who would benefit hugely from overhauling the SSI program and bringing its countable asset limits up to $10,000 (what it should be now, accounting for historic inflation rates). Many SSI recipients receive overpayment letters for accidentally going over these limits in continuing "resource tests" they must undergo every 3-7 years to keep their benefits.
When that happens, the SSA sends a letter demanding you repay every dollar of benefits they "accidentally" paid you in SSI. If you don't or can't repay it, they terminate your payments.
I wholeheartedly support any effort to successfully overhaul this program and improve the lives of nearly 7.5 million current SSI beneficiaries.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 10:45 AM on August 18, 2023 [54 favorites]
Footnote to all those who bleat out "I don't know why all y'all in New York stay there when there are much cheaper houses in the middle of the country" - the fact that we don't want a $20K drop in our salary is a big part of why.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:46 AM on August 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:46 AM on August 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
That article ignores one absolutely enormous detail - that the salary for various positions rises and falls along with the cost of living when you go from place to place.
The exception, of course, is if you have a job that allows remote work, in which case you get to carry your big city salary to wherever you move. There are a lot of places that have had their housing markets transformed by this, to the detriment of anyone there who relies on earning a local wage. There's at least one or two people profiled in the article who are in that position.
posted by Dip Flash at 10:54 AM on August 18, 2023 [8 favorites]
The exception, of course, is if you have a job that allows remote work, in which case you get to carry your big city salary to wherever you move. There are a lot of places that have had their housing markets transformed by this, to the detriment of anyone there who relies on earning a local wage. There's at least one or two people profiled in the article who are in that position.
posted by Dip Flash at 10:54 AM on August 18, 2023 [8 favorites]
The exception, of course, is if you have a job that allows remote work, in which case you get to carry your big city salary to wherever you move.
That's not necessarily true. The (large) company I work for has hired a meaningful percentage of remote employees and their salaries vary significantly depending on location, pretty much proportional to COL.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 11:06 AM on August 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
That's not necessarily true. The (large) company I work for has hired a meaningful percentage of remote employees and their salaries vary significantly depending on location, pretty much proportional to COL.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 11:06 AM on August 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
Thank you for that excellent info about SSI, Unicorn on the cob. I've just added it to my list of things to write my congressfolk about.
posted by kristi at 11:07 AM on August 18, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by kristi at 11:07 AM on August 18, 2023 [8 favorites]
The exception, of course, is if you have a job that allows remote work, in which case you get to carry your big city salary to wherever you move.
And wouldn't you know it - the people with the lower-level pink-collar or blue-collar jobs, who would benefit most from being able to carry that big salary to a smaller and cheaper area, are ALSO the same people who wouldn't be in jobs that allow remote work in the first place. Darn heck shoot!
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:09 AM on August 18, 2023 [6 favorites]
And wouldn't you know it - the people with the lower-level pink-collar or blue-collar jobs, who would benefit most from being able to carry that big salary to a smaller and cheaper area, are ALSO the same people who wouldn't be in jobs that allow remote work in the first place. Darn heck shoot!
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:09 AM on August 18, 2023 [6 favorites]
And wouldn't you know it - the people with the lower-level pink-collar or blue-collar jobs, who would benefit most from being able to carry that big salary to a smaller and cheaper area, are ALSO the same people who wouldn't be in jobs that allow remote work in the first place. Darn heck shoot!
Sadly, yes, you are completely right, and this is becoming another facet of inequality. The ability to work fully or partially remote is something that some people are able to access, but many others are not.
That's not necessarily true. The (large) company I work for has hired a meaningful percentage of remote employees and their salaries vary significantly depending on location, pretty much proportional to COL.
I've read about this more and more. It hasn't happened where I work, but I am sure they would love to try and implement it if they thought they could get away with it. Just like with access to remote work at all, how it is implemented benefits some people, but not others.
posted by Dip Flash at 11:28 AM on August 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
Sadly, yes, you are completely right, and this is becoming another facet of inequality. The ability to work fully or partially remote is something that some people are able to access, but many others are not.
That's not necessarily true. The (large) company I work for has hired a meaningful percentage of remote employees and their salaries vary significantly depending on location, pretty much proportional to COL.
I've read about this more and more. It hasn't happened where I work, but I am sure they would love to try and implement it if they thought they could get away with it. Just like with access to remote work at all, how it is implemented benefits some people, but not others.
posted by Dip Flash at 11:28 AM on August 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
Regarding the child care cost issue - I am in charge of a group that puts on an infant and toddler child care focused conference every year. As part of that conference we set up a model infant toddler classroom, and participants enter a raffle to receive free items from the model room. Items for infant toddlers of course have to meet safety requirements, licensing requirements, and be developmentally appropriate. This means shelves can only be so tall, not tippable, etc. Shelving that we purchased prepandemic for about $200 is now going for $800 for a single unit. Let's not even talk about changing tables, portable sinks, and other items. I don't know how child care providers are going to stay in business once the federal funds run out September 30.
posted by Gyre,Gimble,Wabe, Esq. at 12:22 PM on August 18, 2023 [13 favorites]
posted by Gyre,Gimble,Wabe, Esq. at 12:22 PM on August 18, 2023 [13 favorites]
I keep thinking the Biden campaign and DNC are missing a huge opportunity in not campaigning on an aggressive platform of reducing housing costs with federal intervention if he wins a second term and a congressional majority. It's such low hanging fruit.
I've also been thinking this, and I'm about as big a Dark Brandon fan as you'll find. A massive plan to make housing more affordable would be a great signature initiative for the second Biden administration.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 2:11 PM on August 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
I've also been thinking this, and I'm about as big a Dark Brandon fan as you'll find. A massive plan to make housing more affordable would be a great signature initiative for the second Biden administration.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 2:11 PM on August 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
I am curious what other people think of the median housing costs in their area, because for mine it says $1200 a month... I don't know anyone who is paying that low, and that's the median?
posted by nakedmolerats at 2:43 PM on August 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by nakedmolerats at 2:43 PM on August 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
I don't know you from Adam's house cat and am just speaking generally. In general perceptions like that can be faulty. Your median acquaintance is unlikely to resemble the actual median.
Apart from most middle class people not knowing a bunch of desperately poor, can't eat every day folks (again just speaking generally not about you specifically), most nonelderly folks don't know a right passel of old farts who either own their homes outright or have a mortgage payment from 1994.
Also am using stupid tablet keyboard and and so curt.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 3:10 PM on August 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
Apart from most middle class people not knowing a bunch of desperately poor, can't eat every day folks (again just speaking generally not about you specifically), most nonelderly folks don't know a right passel of old farts who either own their homes outright or have a mortgage payment from 1994.
Also am using stupid tablet keyboard and and so curt.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 3:10 PM on August 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
A massive plan to make housing more affordable would be a great signature initiative for the second Biden administration.
But therein lies the problem. Such an initiative would be wildly popular with average voters, tis true, but it would be wildly unpopular with the class of wealthy and upper-middle-class donors without whom the Dems would be unable to compete in large-scale elections. I loathe the absolute fuck out of Bernie Sanders, but his critique of the system—that a huge percentage of our problems stem from "campaign finance"—was spot-on.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 3:26 PM on August 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
But therein lies the problem. Such an initiative would be wildly popular with average voters, tis true, but it would be wildly unpopular with the class of wealthy and upper-middle-class donors without whom the Dems would be unable to compete in large-scale elections. I loathe the absolute fuck out of Bernie Sanders, but his critique of the system—that a huge percentage of our problems stem from "campaign finance"—was spot-on.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 3:26 PM on August 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
That's true. I guess median housing cost for everyone is different from median cost for people looking for housing right now.
posted by nakedmolerats at 3:31 PM on August 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by nakedmolerats at 3:31 PM on August 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
Ooh that's an even better way to put it
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 4:17 PM on August 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 4:17 PM on August 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
The New Yorker in the "Are You Rich" article needs a kick in the pants, though. A singleton without dependents or major specialized health needs should not be going backwards on a $180K salary in NYC. I was not going backwards on 2/3 of that (though I didn't even try to have a pet). For a minute, I thought maybe her husband's death left her with a mortgage payment she couldn't manage (and no life insurance), but, no, she's a renter. WYD, lady?!?
posted by praemunire at 5:07 PM on August 18, 2023
posted by praemunire at 5:07 PM on August 18, 2023
A massive plan to make housing more affordable would be a great signature initiative for the second Biden administration.
The other problem, IMO, is that the only real way out of the housing unaffordability mess is for government to enable non-market housing until home prices come down.
But that isn't something that can show results in only a few years. Even if one could just snap their fingers and drop thousands of homes into the market, non-market housing needs time to act as a brake on exuberant real estate speculation. The anti inflationary pricing of non market housing needs inflation to drag down market rents. It took a good 30+ years to "Free-Market" our way into this and it'll take longer to build out.
posted by Mitheral at 5:53 PM on August 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
The other problem, IMO, is that the only real way out of the housing unaffordability mess is for government to enable non-market housing until home prices come down.
But that isn't something that can show results in only a few years. Even if one could just snap their fingers and drop thousands of homes into the market, non-market housing needs time to act as a brake on exuberant real estate speculation. The anti inflationary pricing of non market housing needs inflation to drag down market rents. It took a good 30+ years to "Free-Market" our way into this and it'll take longer to build out.
posted by Mitheral at 5:53 PM on August 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
We're not likely to come up with anything that has such a dramatic, immediate effect on prices, unfortunately.
Yeah... this is a problem that, unfortunately, we are probably going to have work our way out of gradually. By just building a crap ton of housing. And then more of it. And then some more, and then after that, some more. Once we've done that, I think the best thing to do would be to build more housing. Flooding the market is the only strategy that won't run into intractable political opposition at some point or another (and even that is a tough lift.)
It's possible that things are moving in the right direction, new single and multifamily construction seems strong this year - but then... it's threatened by the high interest rates. (Which, isn't that something. "Aw, geez, we have to solve inflation by making people poorer AND making their housing cost more? Well shucks, sorry guys, hands are tied - inflation!")
I think that people have started to notice that the "value" of their homes is not actually valuable to them, which is step one towards regaining sanity.
posted by mellow seas at 6:03 PM on August 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
Yeah... this is a problem that, unfortunately, we are probably going to have work our way out of gradually. By just building a crap ton of housing. And then more of it. And then some more, and then after that, some more. Once we've done that, I think the best thing to do would be to build more housing. Flooding the market is the only strategy that won't run into intractable political opposition at some point or another (and even that is a tough lift.)
It's possible that things are moving in the right direction, new single and multifamily construction seems strong this year - but then... it's threatened by the high interest rates. (Which, isn't that something. "Aw, geez, we have to solve inflation by making people poorer AND making their housing cost more? Well shucks, sorry guys, hands are tied - inflation!")
I think that people have started to notice that the "value" of their homes is not actually valuable to them, which is step one towards regaining sanity.
posted by mellow seas at 6:03 PM on August 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
I don’t know that the problem is just not enough housing; part of the problem is things like runaway rents and the ability to increase them without reason. This would be very easy to fix, except that the class of people who operate as landlords are also the class of people who most often donate to political campaigns.
posted by corb at 2:08 AM on August 19, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by corb at 2:08 AM on August 19, 2023 [4 favorites]
This would be very easy to fix, except that the class of people who operate as landlords are also the class of people who most often donate to political campaigns.
I agree that the corporate landlords dominate in terms of regulatory capture and general legislative input. But there is also a surprisingly broad constituency of small- and medium-sized landlords, all those people who rent out a house or three, or own a four-plex. (Many of the landlords profiled in Desmond's Evicted fit in this category.) And, there are a lot of people who aspire to being landlords -- see the discussions on any financial forum from people dreaming of "passive income." So there is both corporate money and a voting constituency, which is a powerful combination.
That doesn't even count the people who own their house and rent out rooms, since that usually flies entirely under the regulatory radar.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:24 AM on August 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
I agree that the corporate landlords dominate in terms of regulatory capture and general legislative input. But there is also a surprisingly broad constituency of small- and medium-sized landlords, all those people who rent out a house or three, or own a four-plex. (Many of the landlords profiled in Desmond's Evicted fit in this category.) And, there are a lot of people who aspire to being landlords -- see the discussions on any financial forum from people dreaming of "passive income." So there is both corporate money and a voting constituency, which is a powerful combination.
That doesn't even count the people who own their house and rent out rooms, since that usually flies entirely under the regulatory radar.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:24 AM on August 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
I think corb might mean affluent people as well. There is a coalition of people who contribute to this issue including middle class/upper middle class people who want to preserve the value of their homes, wealthy developer types and smaller time landlords, who are often in between. Sort of like the restaurant lobby combining the power of large corporations with the voices of small business owners/franchisees to keep wages low and fight unionization.
posted by Selena777 at 7:59 AM on August 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Selena777 at 7:59 AM on August 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
> In conclusion, fuck racists, fuck NIMBYs, fuck the exclusionary zoning that keeps housing so expensive here.
> NIMBYism at its worst also limits property rights as small numbers of 'local' property owners basically get an unelected and unearned primary say in city planning.
> NIMBYs aren't actually that popular - there's a reason why their success tends to be predicated on controlling arcane processes, and it's why they tend to skew white, wealthy, and older - they're the people who gave the ability to manipulate those arcane processes.
> Such an initiative would be wildly popular with average voters, tis true, but it would be wildly unpopular with the class of wealthy and upper-middle-class donors without whom the Dems would be unable to compete in large-scale elections. I loathe the absolute fuck out of Bernie Sanders, but his critique of the system—that a huge percentage of our problems stem from "campaign finance"—was spot-on.
> This would be very easy to fix, except that the class of people who operate as landlords are also the class of people who most often donate to political campaigns.
ed glaeser 17 years ago:
> NIMBYism at its worst also limits property rights as small numbers of 'local' property owners basically get an unelected and unearned primary say in city planning.
> NIMBYs aren't actually that popular - there's a reason why their success tends to be predicated on controlling arcane processes, and it's why they tend to skew white, wealthy, and older - they're the people who gave the ability to manipulate those arcane processes.
> Such an initiative would be wildly popular with average voters, tis true, but it would be wildly unpopular with the class of wealthy and upper-middle-class donors without whom the Dems would be unable to compete in large-scale elections. I loathe the absolute fuck out of Bernie Sanders, but his critique of the system—that a huge percentage of our problems stem from "campaign finance"—was spot-on.
> This would be very easy to fix, except that the class of people who operate as landlords are also the class of people who most often donate to political campaigns.
ed glaeser 17 years ago:
Unlike that of most other housing economists, Glaeser's recent work on real estate addresses the issues of supply rather than of demand. He is far more interested in the forces shaping land development and residential building in the United States than in the forces shaping buyers' motivations and actions. He views supply as crucial to appreciating what has happened to the U.S. real-estate market over the past 30 years. A few months ago, he traveled from his Harvard office to the Massachusetts State House, near Boston Common, to discuss with the leaders of the State Legislature a research project he had just completed on the local housing market. Between 1980 and 2000, four of the five cities in the U.S. with the fastest-growing housing prices were in Boston's metropolitan area: Cambridge, Somerville, Newton and Boston itself. (Palo Alto had the second-fastest-rising prices over that time.) Glaeser and several colleagues considered two explanations. First, the possibility that builders in the metro area were running out of land and that home prices reflected that scarcity. The second hypothesis was that building permits were scarce, not land. Had the 187 townships in the metro area created a web of regulations that hindered building to such a degree that demand far outstripped supply, driving prices up?a couple more fwiw...
Almost as a rule, Glaeser is skeptical of the lack-of-land argument. He has previously noted (with a collaborator, Matthew Kahn) that 95 percent of the United States remains undeveloped and that if every American were given a house on a quarter acre, so that every family of four had a full acre, that distribution would not use up half the land in Texas. Most of Boston's metro area, he concluded, wasn't particularly dense, and even in places where it was, like the centers of Boston and Cambridge, there was ample opportunity to construct higher buildings with more housing units.
So, after sorting through a mountain of data, Glaeser decided that the housing crisis was man-made. The region's zoning regulations — which were enacted by locales in the first half of the 20th century to separate residential land from commercial and industrial land and which generally promoted the orderly growth of suburbs — had become so various and complex in the second half of the 20th century that they were limiting growth. Land-use rules of the 1920's were meant to assure homeowners that their neighbors wouldn't raise hogs in their backyards, throw up a shack on a sliver of land nearby or build a factory next door, but the zoning rules of the 1970's and 1980's were different in nature and effect. Regulations in Glaeser's new hometown of Weston, for instance, made extremely large lot sizes mandatory in some neighborhoods and placed high environmental hurdles (some reasonable, others not, in Glaeser's view) in front of developers. Other towns passed ordinances governing sidewalks, street widths, the shape of lots, septic lines and so on — all with the result, in Glaeser's analysis, of curtailing the supply of housing. The same phenomenon, he says, has inflated prices in metro areas all along the East and West Coasts.
- New York Plans to Convert Parts of Midtown Manhattan to Housing [ungated] - "Mayor Eric Adams announced plans to rezone manufacturing areas south of Times Square and allow more office buildings to be converted to housing."
- Can Affluence and Affordable Housing Coexist in Colorado's Rockies? [ungated] - "The outdoorsy lifestyle of Colorado mountain towns has become a magnet for the new remote-worker class, upending life for those already rooted there."
Glaeser's comments were sounding at least nominally reasonable but then he added sewers as an example of over regulation.
posted by Mitheral at 5:46 AM on August 20, 2023
posted by Mitheral at 5:46 AM on August 20, 2023
Why Detroit, America's Poorest City Doesn't Have an L.A.-sized Homelessness Problem
posted by Selena777 at 7:18 AM on August 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Selena777 at 7:18 AM on August 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
TL;DR: it's not about drug use or laziness. "most basic approach to getting people off the streets: finding more places to live."
posted by Mitheral at 9:19 AM on August 20, 2023
posted by Mitheral at 9:19 AM on August 20, 2023
If I had some money, I'd build affordable, accessible, sustainable housing. Single family homes in some areas, mostly higher density. It's hard to legally require that a home may be sold, but only to a resident owner. A think tank could work on ways to do that, and legislators could act. Housing has been taken over by corporations, who only care about profit. We're seeing the dramatic rise of rents because of Real Estate Investment Trusts, which have been hoovering up housing and maximizing rents. This keeps raising market value in desirable locations. It's Peak Capitalism leveraging technology. I was a small-time landlord. I kept the rent a bit under market, and seldom raised rent for stable tenants. They were my neighbors; I had to see them and screwing them for money is harder to do to people you know.
My 2 family home allowed me to raise my child with no child support. We were broke, but we managed. The more properties a landlord has, the more distant they are from tenants, the greedier they get, as far as I can tell. Tax wealth. Tax capital gains as ordinary income. Reduce the many, many tax dodges. Greed is making people homeless and killing the planet we depend on. The worse Wealth Inequity gets, the shittier the wealthy behave.
posted by theora55 at 12:33 PM on August 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
My 2 family home allowed me to raise my child with no child support. We were broke, but we managed. The more properties a landlord has, the more distant they are from tenants, the greedier they get, as far as I can tell. Tax wealth. Tax capital gains as ordinary income. Reduce the many, many tax dodges. Greed is making people homeless and killing the planet we depend on. The worse Wealth Inequity gets, the shittier the wealthy behave.
posted by theora55 at 12:33 PM on August 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
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Now I'm in a much less dynamic city, where it's hard to find 2br apartments for less than $1500, even less than $1800 is considered a good find. But salaries for entry-level jobs have barely gone up it seems, based on the recent job hunting my partner and I have done.
I know it will never happen, but there needs to be some sort of federal rent control - landlords shouldn't be able to raise rents more than the medium salary has risen. A year ago my landlord tried to raise our rent 25% - we protested and did negotiate a 5% raise instead, but we shouldn't have had to do that. Building affordable housing is obviously an important piece, but ensuring rents on existing housing are tethered to reality seems equally important.
posted by coffeecat at 6:52 AM on August 18, 2023 [14 favorites]