Comments on: How Affordable Housing Policies Backfire

By: Como consertar o mercado imobiliário | Caos Planejado

Como consertar o mercado imobiliário | Caos Planejado — Thu, 12 Nov 2015 15:35:47 +0000

[…] controle de aluguéis nem zoneamento inclusivo (chamado, em São Paulo, de “Cota de Solidariedade”) consertarão a crise […]

By: Inclusionary Zoning Is Rent Control 2.0 - MorningStandard.com

Inclusionary Zoning Is Rent Control 2.0 - MorningStandard.com — Wed, 27 May 2015 08:23:22 +0000

[…] Area Median Income, are not the most cost effective choice for many people in this income range,” she wrote for MarketUrbanism.com. “Potential beneficiaries of owner-occupied IZ units may not be able to qualify for a mortgage. […]

By: How to Fix San Francisco’s Housing Market

How to Fix San Francisco’s Housing Market — Mon, 26 Jan 2015 13:50:27 +0000

[…] rent control nor inclusionary zoning will fix the housing crisis. Both amount to price controls. Both drive up the price of market rate […]

By: hcat

hcat — Fri, 12 Dec 2014 02:00:00 +0000

What about Section 8, while we’re at it? Certainly better than Cabrini Green or Pruitt Igoe.

By: BART, Josefowitz, and Mass Transit in the Bay

BART, Josefowitz, and Mass Transit in the Bay — Mon, 10 Nov 2014 17:00:14 +0000

[…] include some kind of “affordable” housing requirement, the beneficial effects of which remain questionable to say the […]

By: MarketUrbanism

MarketUrbanism — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 20:55:00 +0000

Green, please be specify where I am biased – that would help me address my shortcomings.

I believe you misread what I said about spillover. I stated that the *consequences* spill over to the broader market. The rich can handle it – it’s the less wealthy, immigrants, and others who want to move to that city who suffers. As I’ve advocated numerous times, the long-term solution is liberalization of zoning to allow for an increase in supply. Until then, only the lucky ones who already live in that city benefit.

I don’t have enough information to address the “racism” remark, but to blame one race for the problem sounds like you fit the definition of racist…

By: linstur

linstur — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 05:15:00 +0000

I agree — giving a few people an awesome lottery ticket seems unfair and doesn’t solve the problem. There are so many better MARKET-based solutions. Micro-Housing is booming in Seattle — and has so vacancies – they can’t build them fast enough. The idea is affordable housing is affordable because it’s small (and also happens to be super-green). Renters pay the market rate and live in 400 square foot units with kitchens and bathrooms; and a shared full kitchen with a dining table and a big screen TV. Rent can be as low as $800/month – but it’s the market price. It’s the cheapest deal going and could absorb a huge chunk of the market. The government is never involved – and landlords have to keep the place clean and maintained if they want to keep people renting.

What the government CAN do is make zoning easy and free. Pre-zone empty lots all over dense cities for Micro-housing (80 units can be built on the footprint of a single family home). Encourage these units, as well as granny flats.

And most importantly – change our property tax system to encourage dense living and reflects the number of people living in a dwelling. A single man living in a 2000 square foot house should pay more than a large family with a rented garage. If renting out your garage cut your property taxes in half, and the zoning was non-existent (and fees were waived) – it would create a ton of low-income rental options.

Government should take their affordable housing funds and match it towards freeing up red-tape and the ability for the MARKET to solve the problem – then see who wins the race.

By: Green

Green — Sun, 17 Aug 2014 12:55:00 +0000

Whoa Market Urbanism, this is pretty vitriolic and biased. It also highlights problems with free market fundamentalism. You speak of “spill over,” well that is exactly the problem with free market ideas: we can’t start from an imaginary zero point of fairness. Also, there is a huge value judgement where your are valuing the housing of the more wealthy over the less wealthy in your spill over ethic. Also, how do you factor racism into your equation? Because, let’s be honest, this is what you are not addressing directly. White racism has created poverty for non-whites by preventing non-whites from gaining access to resources.