Reply to What do you think of YIMBYs?

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

NIMBYS: "We can't allow zoning changes in my neighborhood to allow multifamily housing, [i]it would drive down my property values!![/i] Also, it wouldn't work anyway because building more housing doesn't decrease property values!"

So either NIMBYs are idiots who don't understand their own arguments, or it was never about "property values" in the first place and really all about keeping black and brown people out of their neighborhoods.

Actually, realistically it's probably both.[/quote]

i mean, empirically it would increase property values, but the increased value would be from the land (because the property owner could tear down the house and put up a duplex or whatever), and people don't necessarily like the idea that they're living in a future teardown.

Plus the usual issues of multifamily housing (aka "not the kind of housing people like me live in") and renting (aka "not the kind of occupancy people like me have").

Plus, of course, they're right that it won't create decent housing that poor people can afford. It's "more-affordable housing" or "less-unaffordable housing," not "affordable housing." No matter how many zoning changes you institute, the market alone won't provide sufficient decent homes that poor people can afford.[/quote]

The arguments in favor of loosening zoning laws always have the same error in logic: They assume that demand for housing never changes.

They just say, "Hey if we could just add a bunch more housing units, then housing prices would fall, either in absolute terms or relative to what they would have otherwise been -- because, you know, supply and demand." And sure that's true if demand doesnt change. But why wouldnt demand go up too? 
[b]
If you add a lot more housing units WOTP, for example, a lot of people who had previously written off their chances of living there will suddenly be very interested in moving there because of the schools (sorry, young white dudes hoping to move into Cleveland Park -- you will be outbid by parents). Likewise, if you add a bunch of housing units in poorer areas of the city, you will set off a wave of gentrification that will prompt a lot more people to want to live there. You'll also attract a lot more people looking to move in from the suburbs in order to have a shorter commute. [/b]

In those cases, adding housing units has no effect on housing prices. It might even make the city less affordable. [/quote]

And all those people moving to this area where you built new housing will be creating vacancies in the areas they left....

[/quote]

Of course. So there will be plenty of places for you to live in Manassas. [/quote]

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