The idea that zoning is the issue is always funny to me because it’s very easy to disprove. Plenty of paces in the US have permissive zoning (like the NY metro area). If zoning was the issue, then one would expect affordable housing in these areas, but it is still totally out of reach for most.
What city? Restrictive zoning is definitely a huge problem when it comes to affordable housing in a great many American cities. I guess I can't say it's universal though.
Zoning laws are mostly to blame for lack of affordable housing. That, and the usage of houses as an investment.
When you spruce up a house, that attracts different renters. The other renters will take up housing otherwise they wouldn't have bothered with, and it goes on down the ladder.
The argument that market rate housing causes lack of affordable housing is just not true. Look at San Francisco. They have strict zoning laws, laws against construction of market rate housing, and rent control laws. Is it a paradise for low-income renters?
Zoning is one of the big culprits for affordable housing. I'm curious if it would be productive for companies to target zoning laws or if it would create a counter productive backlash.
Local control over zoning is a massive problem. Most people agree that building more homes would bring housing prices down. However, most cities have more than half of the land exclusively reserved for single family homes and have rules that prevent any creativity or density. They want other places to add the housing. I can't see the problems going away unless entire states reform zoning.
My concern is if and how high density zoning promotes growth models and patterns that detract from them availability and creation of affordable housing. It's also sad to realizing that affordable housing in the metropolitan US also typically means low-end.
While zoning is indeed a major problem in the US, ultimately the problem worldwide is that supply isn't meeting demand. If supply was able to meet demand, then prices would be stable and housing wouldn't become an investment vehicle.
I disagree that zoning alone is the problem as you see these market developments in almost all western nations and some of them have ample land to build upon.
Zoning could be more liberal, but it would still be massive stakeholders that would build new homes and rent them out to get a decent ROI.
The problem is always expensive housing where people want to live. The zoning doesn’t make the housing expensive itself, the desirability of the location does. No one ever complains about zoning in Detroit or Cleveland.
Housing can actually be fairly affordable in Europe. Berlin until about 5 years ago had incredibly affordable housing for such a nice city…then it simply got more popular until that wasn’t the case anymore. Tokyo would have similar problems if its population wasn’t actually shrinking now (as are Nagoya and Osaka), since it’s a nice place to live, and housing isn’t very restricted beyond having to rebuild everything every 30 (SFH) to 50 (apartments) years.
Zoning makes sense in some cases. I might not want someone to build factory on a residential street for example. But we need more units being built. I don't think it really matters if they're affordable or not, rental or for purchase. Add a million or so units to any city and it should sort itself out I'd think.
Uhh, have you heard about the housing affordability problem in many states? The zoning regulations have created cookie cutter cul-de-sac neighborhoods that have contributed to unnatural sprawl. It's very difficult to even innovate in housing and commercial design due to these restrictions.
The biggest reason that cities are expensive to live in isn't so much a lack of land, it's a lack of properly zoned land. Even in limited areas like Manhattan, we have imposed extra artificial limitations on ourselves in the form of zoning laws. Remove those laws, and there will be much more housing built, and it will be cheaper to live in cities. Forced low income housing is another restriction, by only giving developers reasonable exceptions to draconian laws like minimum parking requirements if they set aside a certain portion of the units to low income housing, the government again restricts density. Better to remove ridiculous zoning laws in general, and housing will become more affordable for everyone.
"These days, many people who don't have explicitly racist motivations support zoning laws because they like the status quo, even though the status quo bans the construction of affordable housing in most of the city."
I don't think status quo is the only reason. Property values near more dense development are likely to suffer.
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