We need homes. A lot of homes. Not just affordable, but also middle-income homes.

[Anonymous]

Affordable housing is a huge problem in The District! Just today, there was an article about how Secretary of Transportation Buttgig and his husband are unable to find an affordable home in DC. And the Secretary makes over $200k a year!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Affordable housing is a huge problem in The District! Just today, there was an article about how Secretary of Transportation Buttgig and his husband are unable to find an affordable home in DC. And the Secretary makes over $200k a year!

He can find a home with that kind of money. The problem is probably more that it’s just not up to his standards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Affordable housing is a huge problem in The District! Just today, there was an article about how Secretary of Transportation Buttgig and his husband are unable to find an affordable home in DC. And the Secretary makes over $200k a year!

No one really wants to pay as much they do for housing, but people will pay whatever they have to. Developers know this and over the years have increasingly sought to take larger and larger shares of household incomes, especially among low-income households. They’ve been able to do this by avoiding oversupply. DC has more than 60,000 units in its development pipeline, nearly 20,000 of them in the near-term pipeline. Rental vacancy rates have hovered around 6 percent for the past decade, exceeding 6 percent for consecutive quarters just once before the pandemic. Would we still have a housing crisis if all of the near-term pipeline got built? Developers love to blame government and NIMBYs for shortages, but they could supply a lot more housing in the next two years than they actually will.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Affordable housing is a huge problem in The District! Just today, there was an article about how Secretary of Transportation Buttgig and his husband are unable to find an affordable home in DC. And the Secretary makes over $200k a year!

No one really wants to pay as much they do for housing, but people will pay whatever they have to. Developers know this and over the years have increasingly sought to take larger and larger shares of household incomes, especially among low-income households. They’ve been able to do this by avoiding oversupply. DC has more than 60,000 units in its development pipeline, nearly 20,000 of them in the near-term pipeline. Rental vacancy rates have hovered around 6 percent for the past decade, exceeding 6 percent for consecutive quarters just once before the pandemic. Would we still have a housing crisis if all of the near-term pipeline got built? Developers love to blame government and NIMBYs for shortages, but they could supply a lot more housing in the next two years than they actually will.

Nothing is forcing people to not compete with these "developers". You act as if there is a secret cabal out there.

There simply isn't any proof of what you are suggesting. At all. Almost all new builds are held up for years because of "affordable housing" requirements, permits, and lawsuits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Affordable housing is a huge problem in The District! Just today, there was an article about how Secretary of Transportation Buttgig and his husband are unable to find an affordable home in DC. And the Secretary makes over $200k a year!

No one really wants to pay as much they do for housing, but people will pay whatever they have to. Developers know this and over the years have increasingly sought to take larger and larger shares of household incomes, especially among low-income households. They’ve been able to do this by avoiding oversupply. DC has more than 60,000 units in its development pipeline, nearly 20,000 of them in the near-term pipeline. Rental vacancy rates have hovered around 6 percent for the past decade, exceeding 6 percent for consecutive quarters just once before the pandemic. Would we still have a housing crisis if all of the near-term pipeline got built? Developers love to blame government and NIMBYs for shortages, but they could supply a lot more housing in the next two years than they actually will.

Nothing is forcing people to not compete with these "developers". You act as if there is a secret cabal out there.

There simply isn't any proof of what you are suggesting. At all. Almost all new builds are held up for years because of "affordable housing" requirements, permits, and lawsuits.

Land. The developers with these pipeline projects already own or control land. Lack of universal access to large parcels inhibits competition.

Please tell me how many of the units are tied up by litigation. DC just fixed permitting. Not sure how “affordable housing” requirements (why did you use quotes for affordable housing?) are preventing affordable housing construction.

The DC pipeline report, produced under a PPP, says developers are slowing deliveries to avoid weighing down the market. Translation: They’re limiting supply to prevent prices from dropping.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Affordable housing is a huge problem in The District! Just today, there was an article about how Secretary of Transportation Buttgig and his husband are unable to find an affordable home in DC. And the Secretary makes over $200k a year!

Where does he look? cCDC? I do t remember they have any kid so his family can afford a $600-800 K townhouse or t condo? I am sure he can fins them in many diverse neighborhoods in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Remote work (accelerated by Covid and dim-witted CEOs finally realizing that paying for large office space doesn't help productivity and employee engagement along with climate change focus that realizes millions of people commuting to work everyday doesn't help the global warming cause) will change everything over the next 20 to 30 years. People will move to suburbs, ex-urbs, rural areas and still have a good paying job. This will depress existing cities even further and make lots of housing more "affordable" there, by default.

Fantasy! Businesses will be going back to in-person. We are not going to a WFH utopia that y’all keep dreaming about. It’s cute but it’s not going to happen.

[Anonymous]

Well, my work was just put on permanent remote status today, so...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, my work was just put on permanent remote status today, so...

You'll have to excuse GGW. They're having a Trump moment where reality is the existential threat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Affordable housing is a huge problem in The District! Just today, there was an article about how Secretary of Transportation Buttgig and his husband are unable to find an affordable home in DC. And the Secretary makes over $200k a year!

He can find a home with that kind of money. The problem is probably more that it’s just not up to his standards.

Their household student debt is very high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Remote work (accelerated by Covid and dim-witted CEOs finally realizing that paying for large office space doesn't help productivity and employee engagement along with climate change focus that realizes millions of people commuting to work everyday doesn't help the global warming cause) will change everything over the next 20 to 30 years. People will move to suburbs, ex-urbs, rural areas and still have a good paying job. This will depress existing cities even further and make lots of housing more "affordable" there, by default.

Fantasy! Businesses will be going back to in-person. We are not going to a WFH utopia that y’all keep dreaming about. It’s cute but it’s not going to happen.

Of course we are going to a WFH-heavy world. I don't think ex-urbs and rural will become the choice, though, because most people still value all the services, conveniences, and even 'safety in numbers' from climate threats that a city affords, and those services and conveniences create jobs. So a home office desk job from a city will be just as attractive as from an isolated farm.

Having said that, I'll admit, the concept of 'safety in numbers' from climate threats is a gut sense, and I have no strong opinion or information to back it up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Affordable housing is a huge problem in The District! Just today, there was an article about how Secretary of Transportation Buttgig and his husband are unable to find an affordable home in DC. And the Secretary makes over $200k a year!

No one really wants to pay as much they do for housing, but people will pay whatever they have to. Developers know this and over the years have increasingly sought to take larger and larger shares of household incomes, especially among low-income households. They’ve been able to do this by avoiding oversupply. DC has more than 60,000 units in its development pipeline, nearly 20,000 of them in the near-term pipeline. Rental vacancy rates have hovered around 6 percent for the past decade, exceeding 6 percent for consecutive quarters just once before the pandemic. Would we still have a housing crisis if all of the near-term pipeline got built? Developers love to blame government and NIMBYs for shortages, but they could supply a lot more housing in the next two years than they actually will.

Nothing is forcing people to not compete with these "developers". You act as if there is a secret cabal out there.

There simply isn't any proof of what you are suggesting. At all. Almost all new builds are held up for years because of "affordable housing" requirements, permits, and lawsuits.

Funny you should say this, because I clicked on this thread thinking "why is this thread revived every day. It must be a secret cabal of developers, trying to mind meld us into believing that 'we need homes. A lot of homes." And sure enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Affordable housing is a huge problem in The District! Just today, there was an article about how Secretary of Transportation Buttgig and his husband are unable to find an affordable home in DC. And the Secretary makes over $200k a year!

This is the bubble the media and political elites choose to live in. The vast majority of people in DC don't make anywhere near that and do just fine. They buy houses. They raise families. Pure propaganda.

[Anonymous]

The old adage to get affordable/middle income housing was to move east of the river but even those homes are now at $400k+

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Affordable housing is a huge problem in The District! Just today, there was an article about how Secretary of Transportation Buttgig and his husband are unable to find an affordable home in DC. And the Secretary makes over $200k a year!

He can find a home with that kind of money. The problem is probably more that it’s just not up to his standards.

Their household student debt is very high.

+100

This is just another reason why student debt needs to be erased