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]

I've read every post, and there isn't a single one that offers a coherent explanation of how any of this leads to affordable housing.

If any of this was actually true, why can't anyone explain it?

It's not an outrageous request to say tell me how that would work. [/quote]

It depends on what you mean by "affordable housing." What do you mean?

The simple explanation is:

Housing in DC is expensive because demand exceeds supply. So, if you increase supply (for example, by allowing property owners to build duplexes, triple-deckers, or four-plexes by right), then demand will exceed supply by less, and the price of housing will decrease - i.e., become affordable to more people.

There are two objections to this:

a. if you increase the number of units and the price decreases, then people will move in from elsewhere and the price will just go back up again. I see this as a feature, not a bug: here are neighborhoods where people want to live, more housing means more people can live there, this is good. But also there is surely not an infinite supply of people who want to move to DC.

b. the price of housing will not decrease enough to become affordable for people who are poor. This is true. The market by itself won't solve this problem. That's why there [i]also[/i] has to be housing built by the government or non-profits.

None of this is complicated, and all of it has been explained multiple times at great length on this thread, so I don't understand the difficulty.[/quote]

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