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

Forum Index » Metropolitan DC Local Politics

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

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
Housing is not a homogeneous commodity. Developer margins are higher with more expensive housing. In this area, those more expensive units will sell. There is little incentive to create "low income" housing. Even worse, the banks know this. Why didn't the real estate market crash here like it did in the rest of the country? Banks held onto the properties until the real estate market in this area began to recover and they could make a profit again selling the properties.[/quote]

It did crash - what are you talking about?  [/quote]

Not like the rest of the country did. Yes, we lost some value but not like most of the country.

http://www.newgeography.com/content/002636-why-housing-so-expensive-metropolitan-washington

Banks kept the foreclosures sitting empty to keep prices stable in our area. Those units slowly dribbled back onto the market. [/quote]

In case you have forgotten, the job market was stronger here.   Bank incentives were no different here than elsewhere.

Anyway, [b]developers have an incentive to build what sells.  [/b]Its a competitive business.  Some tale from Kotkin about banks and REOs is not evidence that developers form cartels to keep housing from being  built when it becomes cheaper to build.  Hell, if they did do that, the NIMBYs wouldn't be so afraid of developers.

[/quote]

But they can only build what they are allowed to build. For the stuff they're not allowed to build, there's no way to know whether or not it would sell. The only way to find out is to allow them to build it.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics