all these affordable housing do gooders are doing the billionaires' work

[Anonymous]

OP - don’t know if you are still here, but I agree 100%, even though we may not be in the same county, we are dealing with the same. The large scale developers are the only winners.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers, firefighters, and young people are being priced out of our county because they can’t afford to buy homes here. That is not good, and the way out of it is definitely nuanced but is NOT to embrace NIMBYism in the way that certain councilmembers have.

Teachers, firefighters and young people are not moving into affordable housing. Nor are they moving into 1 million dollar 8 plexes. None. Zero.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - don’t know if you are still here, but I agree 100%, even though we may not be in the same county, we are dealing with the same. The large scale developers are the only winners.

I’ve stopped voting D in local elections long ago, but since they are essentially running unopposed in our and neighboring counties, that has not helped. The middle class also bears the most of the tax burden by design. And faces the highest barriers to colleges. Eventually all this will completely erode the middle class, unless there are massive changes in these three areas (zoning, higher education, taxes).

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Of course they are doing billionaires work. Ezra Klein and Peter Thiel are buddies. It’s all part of the plan. The YIMBYs are just the useful idiots of the left, the analog of the MAGAs on the right.

Oh no! Affordable housing! How scary! I wonder if you honestly believe this or are just trying to stir the pot.

Housing is already affordable. YIMBYs like to conveniently act as though incomes in this area aren’t astronomical. The median HHI in Moco is about $170k. With the high salaries here, people easily fill up all the apartment buildings that they claim are not affordable. And if you’re at the lower end of the income scale, you can live in an older building, live further out, and/or get a roommate. The options are there. We don’t need to give handouts to developers, change zoning, or manipulate the market to make housing more “affordable” (which paradoxically just raises prices for people who don’t qualify for affordable units). So yes, YIMBYs are idiots.

You are f-ing delusional.

DP. The broad statements about housing being unaffordable are misleading. It is true that too many people are rent burdened. Few of the programs implemented help these households because they are aimed at market rate housing. It is also true that the price of homes for purchase has gone up too fast. Here again, the programs implemented don’t help prospective buyers. In fact, some of them will decrease the number of homes available for purchase.

Median rent in Montgomery County is well below 30 percent of median household income, and over the past two decades, rent increases have been lower than broad inflation on an annualized basis. This suggests that the rental market is in balance or slightly loose. More recently, since rent stabilization took effect, rents have fallen year over year.

The two parts that still need to be solved for are low-income, rent-burdened households and stimulating production of homes for purchase, especially townhouses.

So exactly what YIMBYS are pushing for.

YIMBYs push for houses or ADUs, which gets twisted into housing. Invariably, housing comes to mean high density so that the local government can just build one big apartment building. Surprise, lots of housing and no one is happy. Apartments don't attract the high earners for long. And again, apartment renters short change the local property taxes.

Renters don't short-change local property taxes, their landlords do.

The landlords only pay what is due. Apartments are assessed at a much, much lower value for property taxes.

That's the point. Now I wonder how it ended up being that way....

Developer handouts for developing high density housing. And don't bother talking about subsidized housing. That's the government paying its own property taxes. Every single subsidized property is double taxing someone else.

[Anonymous]

The alternative is people having nowhere to live. How is that better?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The alternative is people having nowhere to live. How is that better?

False choice. Farther out. Smaller. PG. (I keeeeed! I keeeeed!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course they are doing billionaires work. Ezra Klein and Peter Thiel are buddies. It’s all part of the plan. The YIMBYs are just the useful idiots of the left, the analog of the MAGAs on the right.

Oh no! Affordable housing! How scary! I wonder if you honestly believe this or are just trying to stir the pot.

Housing is already affordable. YIMBYs like to conveniently act as though incomes in this area aren’t astronomical. The median HHI in Moco is about $170k. With the high salaries here, people easily fill up all the apartment buildings that they claim are not affordable. And if you’re at the lower end of the income scale, you can live in an older building, live further out, and/or get a roommate. The options are there. We don’t need to give handouts to developers, change zoning, or manipulate the market to make housing more “affordable” (which paradoxically just raises prices for people who don’t qualify for affordable units). So yes, YIMBYs are idiots.

You are f-ing delusional.

Look, if your income is low, then you have to adjust your expectations — live further out, get a roommate, etc. You can’t afford a brand new building in a downtown area, living all by yourself. That’s just how it is, and no politician can fix it. I know it might seem like a salary of, say, $100k is a lot, but in this area it just isn’t. I have friends who realized this and moved to lower cost of living areas and can afford way more than what they can afford here on lower salaries (and they don’t have to deal with the horrific traffic that we have here) — if I were in a job here that didn’t have good growth potential, that’s something I would seriously consider. Relying on the government to give you the housing choices you desire at the price you want is foolish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The alternative is people having nowhere to live. How is that better?

False choice. Farther out. Smaller. PG. (I keeeeed! I keeeeed!)

No, I’m entitled to live in the neighborhood I want to live in!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course they are doing billionaires work. Ezra Klein and Peter Thiel are buddies. It’s all part of the plan. The YIMBYs are just the useful idiots of the left, the analog of the MAGAs on the right.

Oh no! Affordable housing! How scary! I wonder if you honestly believe this or are just trying to stir the pot.

Housing is already affordable. YIMBYs like to conveniently act as though incomes in this area aren’t astronomical. The median HHI in Moco is about $170k. With the high salaries here, people easily fill up all the apartment buildings that they claim are not affordable. And if you’re at the lower end of the income scale, you can live in an older building, live further out, and/or get a roommate. The options are there. We don’t need to give handouts to developers, change zoning, or manipulate the market to make housing more “affordable” (which paradoxically just raises prices for people who don’t qualify for affordable units). So yes, YIMBYs are idiots.

You are f-ing delusional.

Look, if your income is low, then you have to adjust your expectations — live further out, get a roommate, etc. You can’t afford a brand new building in a downtown area, living all by yourself. That’s just how it is, and no politician can fix it. I know it might seem like a salary of, say, $100k is a lot, but in this area it just isn’t. I have friends who realized this and moved to lower cost of living areas and can afford way more than what they can afford here on lower salaries (and they don’t have to deal with the horrific traffic that we have here) — if I were in a job here that didn’t have good growth potential, that’s something I would seriously consider. Relying on the government to give you the housing choices you desire at the price you want is foolish.

+1. People should also consider switching jobs. I switched jobs twice in five years, and doubled my salary by doing so. Don't just settle for being comfortable in your current position if you feel like it's not giving you the salary that you want to be able to afford the housing that you want.