Submitted by paul-e-walnts t3_125166v in jerseycity
Nuplex t1_je25gku wrote
There's no secret answer here. More supply has to be built.
Some complain about developers building x,y,z. Guys, they are private, for-profit, companies, not a government agency working for the social good.
The truth is if we want affordable housing, the government needs to get involved at all levels, and Americans need to buy back into government built housing. This would need local, state, and federal governments expending billions on just building dense, affordable housing themselves.This would necessitate a hefty increase in taxes too. You can't rely on private, for-profit, companies to build affordable housing. It literally does not make sense for them, they aren't a charity. This doesn't even get into the neccesary sweeping policy changes (e.g. essentially banning R-1 zoning nationwide, restricting agencies from buying up new real estate, etc)
And if we really want a change, well, unfortunately, the only countries with affordable housing in desirable areas (e.g. Japan) fundamentally think of housing as a place to live and not an asset. As soon as people stop seeing homes as an asset, prices will deflate in all but the most premium (think Central Park or Beverly Hills) of places.
America would only buy into this after a cataclysmic housing collapse. One that makes 2008 look like a playtest. Otherwise, it would be impossible to convince every owner in the country that they should no longer consider their home to have inherent value. Basically the way we think of cars. Good luck with that.
paul-e-walnts OP t1_je25yf5 wrote
I think we can wrap up the thread now
No-Practice-8038 t1_je2lzvq wrote
franciswilliambird t1_je58oyw wrote
gotta repeal the faircloth amendment before any public housing can be built at scale. The only time anything big gets built in this country is when the federal government pays for it.
psynautic t1_je28ns9 wrote
just on your last point, unfortunately i don't even think a house value cataclysm would reset the thought process. too many people would see the reset as a temporary state and buy up land 'for cheap'.
Nuplex t1_je295jr wrote
It's possible. This happened in Japan, where land is much more scarce. But it requires something so destructive that no one would even consider a house to be a safe long term investment in most areas of the country.
objectimpermanence t1_je2hnjg wrote
Exactly. People don’t seem to realize that the majority of housing is still owned by individuals.
No one is expecting mom and pop to sell their houses at a discount for the greater good.
humchacho t1_je5cxgj wrote
More supply just goes to the same people and corporations that own everything else and make renting and owning too expensive for most people.
pixel_of_moral_decay t1_je291yl wrote
Japans housing is cheap because labor is almost free there, so a house is only worth the building material.
People forget China’s biggest export to the rest of Asia is migrant workers to Japan, who work for almost nothing (and there’s a whole lot of race relations issues with China/Japan only made more complicated by that). And it’s only slightly better than how UAE treats its migrant workers.
It’s also why Japan is always quiet when China escalates tensions in the region. Poking that bear would harm their economy more than it would give them opportunities. Japan would be crushed if it lost all that labor.
The US doesn’t have a cheap source of labor like that.
vams19 t1_je2hpsa wrote
Lol no , labor has nothing to do with it .. have you seen housing price appreciation in China in India. In even mid tier cities in India house prices have 10x in past 10 - 15 years and India has ample labor. Labor has nothing to do with this.
pixel_of_moral_decay t1_je2s7dg wrote
China and India are government backed property investment schemes. It’s just a grift to get foreign dollars in and domestic money to stay there.
Here’s one of thousands of videos of people exploring China’s construction bubble and the cardboard (literally) towers: https://youtu.be/XopSDJq6w8E
You can find tons of videos of urban explorers going through these. Just be warned you’ll subsequently be bombarded with ads about foreign real estate after watching one or two.
henry_sqared t1_je321m1 wrote
>The US doesn’t have a cheap source of labor like that
Mexico would like a word.
pixel_of_moral_decay t1_je3283i wrote
Not even close.
Labor laws and employment laws still apply, and especially in blue states are reasonably well enforced.
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