Reply to Marc Elrich doesn’t think there “is demand for market housing.” He’s never going to fix our housing.

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Reply to "Marc Elrich doesn’t think there “is demand for market housing.” He’s never going to fix our housing."

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The issue is that that price of land in the county has eclipsed the average wage/affordability. We have a lot of rich people in MoCo (as does surrounding counties of the DMV), but also lots of middle and lower income people too. Developers make better profits catering to the wealthier residents, but that market is tapped out. The demand for housing is enormous among lower and middle class residents, yet the speculative prices for land are just too high to cater to that demographic. How do we bridge the gap?

Summary: There is no more cheap land. But we still have insatiable demand among lower and middle-income residents. How do we fix it?[/quote]

By enabling more housing to be built, including on land where there already is housing.[/quote]

There's no reason to build low income housing if there is middle class demand. [/quote]

If the middle class are getting squeezed, I guarantee it’s worse for her lower classes. [/quote]+1

Part of the homeless crisis in CA is due to the high housing costs.

UMC are buying homes that previously MC people could afford, which pushes the MC down to buy homes that previously LC people could afford, which pushes the LC out completely.[/quote]

This. We purchased our first house in 2010 at a HHI of $200K. The seller was a divorced immigrant who cut hair at a chain barber shop. They paid $150K for the house in 1994. We paid $500K in 2010. We just bought our second house last year at $400K HHI. The sellers were modestly paid government employees making about $150K combined. They bought the house 15 years ago for 400K. We paid $800K. It makes for an interesting mix of socioeconomic status in neighborhoods.

I think some of this contributes to white and MC flight out of the county. If you are middle class (teachers, firefighters, etc.) and all you can afford is a neighborhood with a lot of LC people, you may look outside of the county, especially if you have children. I have a friend whose family moved to MoCo and make about $125K a year combined. They said when looking at townhouses in mid county in their price range, there were a lot of people hanging out during the day, sitting outside, multiple families in one unit, etc.

So it's not just about affording, but affording something in a neighborhood with people you perceive to be like you. Not saying it's right, but this is the thought process for some people.[/quote]

I have several friends who moved from MoCo to Frederick. This was not because they couldn't afford to buy a decent home in MoCo, but because they wanted more for their money. I think there's a big difference between people who move because they can't afford and people who want to live on 3 acres of land.[/quote]

Sure, but I'm also one of those people, and I live in a TH with a postage stamp yard in Frederick. We actually couldn't afford $400k as the entry point, so here we are. Our income was $90k so I never felt LMC but that is the housing we could afford - i.e. nothing in MoCo. [/quote]

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