Reply to Is there a coherent argument that loosening zoning laws will lead to affordable housing in DC?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

Give rich people what they want, and there will be dregs for average people! In the far suburbs! Awesome. [/quote]

The rich people in Ward 3, and similar places, want to stop development.  Send the lesser folks somewhere  else, as  far away as possible.

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It's the density people who want to push out poor people to make way for their million-dollar condos. [/quote]

[b]No, I am a density person in Ward 3, and what I want is (a) new buildings with affordable housing in them to replace empty lots, (b) zoning that allows for apartment buildings and other multi-family housing throughout the ward instead of just big single-family homes, and (c) taller buildings in general to allow for more housing in the area. I want more poor people to be able to move TO the neighborhood[/b].[/quote]

None of this stuff will actually result in lower housing prices. That's the whole point of this thread. [/quote]

No, actually, buildings with units designated for affordable housing will lower housing prices. As will different kinds of housing (like, for instance, smaller apartments that a family could live in instead of only $1 million SFHs). As will an increase in supply, generally. No one has offered any evidence that a broad, deliberate policy to increase housing and specifically target housing affordability would not reduce housing prices. There's just been a lot of assertions that, for instance, building condos will make the area more desirable and therefore more expensive.

[b]But if you knocked down my house tomorrow and replaced it with a six-unit building full of two-bedroom condos, every single one of them would sell for less money than my house would if sold as a single family four-bedroom house. That is to say: Housing prices would be reduced[/b].

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Ill do you one better: How about we knock down not only SFHs but also all one-, two- and three-bedroom condos. Replace them all with studios. No one in the District gets more than 450 square feet. Housing would be way cheaper then. [/quote]

What's so sacrosanct about living in DC?  Not everyone can afford to live in Georgetown or on U Street, for example.  We live in a metropolitan region, with cheaper price points in several nearby jurisdictions.  For example, there are good values in Prince George's including inside the Beltway.  [/quote]

1. Pretty much all houses in PG are already inhabited.   So getting people take advantage of those "values" means pushing out some working class PG family.

2. You could add more multifamily in PG. But thats already being done to some extent at most inside the beltway PG metro stations.   At some point even those places won't have much room (and its particularly hard because some PG metro stations are difficult to walk to

3. For people who work on the west side of DC, thats a pretty hefty commute.  If they commute by metro that eats up time and cost.  If they commute by car, that adds emissions, and creates safety issues for people in DC neighborhoods.  The regional imbalance (jobs in DC and NoVa, housing in PG) is one of the main transportation challenges for the region. In terms of the region we want more jobs in PG, not so much more housing for commuters[/quote]

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