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]

There is tons of affordable housing just over the border in PG county. But that doesnt count, because that's not where the density bros want to live. They want the government to shoehorn them into "cool" neighborhoods. [/quote]

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