There is no housing crisis in MoCo or most of the DMV for that matter

[Anonymous]

If you create a protective covenant for your house, it should go away the moment you sell it, unless the future buyer decides to keep the covenant. Makes no sense to freeze a house in amber indefinitely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do people not understand there’s a shit ton of cheap housing in this area? PG, most of Silver Spring (it’s a massive area), Gaithersburg, etc? No one needs to move to Iowa. You just maybe can’t afford to live in Bethesda. Neither can I.

I live in silver spring and to hear people talk it’s unaffordable here too.

Prices in Silver Spring have doubled in the last 10 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you create a protective covenant for your house, it should go away the moment you sell it, unless the future buyer decides to keep the covenant. Makes no sense to freeze a house in amber indefinitely.

That is not how they work. It is a voluntary contract between a group of property owners, but it can be revoked if a 2/3rds majority of the property owners agree to to do so. This is also an element of property rights and people enter into a voluntary contract to protect their use and enjoyment of their home by preventing incompatible development on adjacent parcels. Density bros only like property rights when it is convenient to their argument. Not everyone wants to live in high density apartment complexes and density bros want to force their lifestyle preferences on everyone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do people not understand there’s a shit ton of cheap housing in this area? PG, most of Silver Spring (it’s a massive area), Gaithersburg, etc? No one needs to move to Iowa. You just maybe can’t afford to live in Bethesda. Neither can I.

Define "cheap".

I don't understand why people believe this is a "Evearyone wants to live in Bethesda!!!!!!11111" problem.

The median Montgomery household ($125,000) can barely afford a townhouse in Clarksburg($500,000ish).

Denying the housing crisis is the new denying the crime crisis.

Median income doesn't need to support the median SFH. It needs to tend to support the median cost of shelter, including rental properties, condos/apartments, etc.

Clarksburg isn't exactly a median location either.

Let's take Rockville as "median" MoCo. The median household can comfortably rent an average 2BR apartment. Hard sell for a family of 4.

Rockville is the county seat. Gaithersburg or Germantown more median-ish. 3-4 BR TH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you create a protective covenant for your house, it should go away the moment you sell it, unless the future buyer decides to keep the covenant. Makes no sense to freeze a house in amber indefinitely.

That is not how they work. It is a voluntary contract between a group of property owners, but it can be revoked if a 2/3rds majority of the property owners agree to to do so. This is also an element of property rights and people enter into a voluntary contract to protect their use and enjoyment of their home by preventing incompatible development on adjacent parcels. Density bros only like property rights when it is convenient to their argument. Not everyone wants to live in high density apartment complexes and density bros want to force their lifestyle preferences on everyone else.

How does this not run afoul of the rule against perpetuities? The future buyer did not agree to that protective covenant when it was signed, so should at least be optional to maintain it when a property is sold.

[Anonymous]

How does this not run afoul of the rule against perpetuities? The future buyer did not agree to that protective covenant when it was signed, so should at least be optional to maintain it when a property is sold.


Well they don't need to buy the property if they don't like the use restrictions attached to it. The contract is attached to the properties and does not become null and void if the property has a different owner. The Rule against perpetuities is not relevant to this, that is something that used to apply to trusts, but has been effectively eliminated because many states now allow trusts to last for 500 or 1000 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do people not understand there’s a shit ton of cheap housing in this area? PG, most of Silver Spring (it’s a massive area), Gaithersburg, etc? No one needs to move to Iowa. You just maybe can’t afford to live in Bethesda. Neither can I.

Define "cheap".

I don't understand why people believe this is a "Evearyone wants to live in Bethesda!!!!!!11111" problem.

The median Montgomery household ($125,000) can barely afford a townhouse in Clarksburg($500,000ish).

Denying the housing crisis is the new denying the crime crisis.

Which is why it’s a GOOD thing that developers are focusing on building more apartments and condos that the middle class can actually afford. Not everyone can afford or should be trying to buy a house. I’m sorry but it’s true.

Real middle class cannot afford $500K.

Real middle class in metro DC can. Two government workers are easily making 150-250k.

Two police officers making 160k combined can afford a 500k house. It may be tight but they can easily do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do people not understand there’s a shit ton of cheap housing in this area? PG, most of Silver Spring (it’s a massive area), Gaithersburg, etc? No one needs to move to Iowa. You just maybe can’t afford to live in Bethesda. Neither can I.

I live in silver spring and to hear people talk it’s unaffordable here too.

Prices in Silver Spring have doubled in the last 10 years.

Move to PG then. BIG DEAL.

[Anonymous]

The rule against perpetuities is a legal concept that a future interest in land must vest or fail within a certain specified time frame. So, for example, if I give you a written option to purchase my house for $100, there has to be an ascertainable time frame during which you have to either exercise the option or not. There are lots of nuances but that is the basic option. A covenant is a present restriction on the use of land and it is binding between the parties to it (as well as their successors in interest to the land) unless the covenant is declared void as a matter of public policy, which was the case with racially restrictive covenants, or a historical pattern of being disregarded (e.g., all the houses on a block have a covenant requiring a100 foot setback but over the next 75 years the covenant is consistently disregarded and unenforced). Otherwise, private covenants are fully binding and very difficult to get out from under.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the explanation. Not a lawyer but heard the concept a couple times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do people not understand there’s a shit ton of cheap housing in this area? PG, most of Silver Spring (it’s a massive area), Gaithersburg, etc? No one needs to move to Iowa. You just maybe can’t afford to live in Bethesda. Neither can I.

I live in silver spring and to hear people talk it’s unaffordable here too.

Prices in Silver Spring have doubled in the last 10 years.

That’s only 7% appreciation per year. Less than the stock market.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do people not understand there’s a shit ton of cheap housing in this area? PG, most of Silver Spring (it’s a massive area), Gaithersburg, etc? No one needs to move to Iowa. You just maybe can’t afford to live in Bethesda. Neither can I.

I live in silver spring and to hear people talk it’s unaffordable here too.

Prices in Silver Spring have doubled in the last 10 years.

That’s only 7% appreciation per year. Less than the stock market.

Even then, 7% overstates the appreciation because there’s been a lot of investment in the housing stock in Silver Spring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do people not understand there’s a shit ton of cheap housing in this area? PG, most of Silver Spring (it’s a massive area), Gaithersburg, etc? No one needs to move to Iowa. You just maybe can’t afford to live in Bethesda. Neither can I.

I live in silver spring and to hear people talk it’s unaffordable here too.

Prices in Silver Spring have doubled in the last 10 years.

Which is historically normal?

[Anonymous]

What we need are more 3-4 bedroom apartments and condos, but zoning requirements make build them hard. They typically need to be larger buildings with long main hallways with a set of stairs on either end for fire safety. Instead we get lots of luxury 2 bedroom units since they are easy to build and accommodate in a structure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you create a protective covenant for your house, it should go away the moment you sell it, unless the future buyer decides to keep the covenant. Makes no sense to freeze a house in amber indefinitely.

That is not how they work. It is a voluntary contract between a group of property owners, but it can be revoked if a 2/3rds majority of the property owners agree to to do so. This is also an element of property rights and people enter into a voluntary contract to protect their use and enjoyment of their home by preventing incompatible development on adjacent parcels. Density bros only like property rights when it is convenient to their argument. Not everyone wants to live in high density apartment complexes and density bros want to force their lifestyle preferences on everyone else.

Step 1: allow property owners to build duplexes, triplexes, or fourplexes instead of exclusively uniplexes
Step 2: ????????
Step 3: everyone will be forced to live in high-rise kommunalkas!