Why do we still have archaic zoning that forces worthless parking to be built (sub-$0.50sqft parking vs $3-4sqft housing)? Fixing this alone would cut $150 to $300 a month off rent in many complexes, as it is another massive cross-subsidy that goes markedly unused in newer buildings.
Lets not even touch on how zoning in nearly every city blocks high density development in smart areas (eg. adjacent to mass transit) and causes medium to low density, super expensive slum to be built. Who really wants a $600k 2 bed/1 bath home when a similar condo would be less than half the price on the same land?
TL;DR: Zoning is killing our cities and causing horrid price increases. Kill zoning, keep fire code, watch housing prices stabilize.
I do.
So I bought a place with a similar "you 'overpaid this much' ratio". Why? So we could live in (/on the edge of) Cambridge and have a small yard for my kids and dog to play in, have BBQs, grow plants and flowers, have a driveway/garage, a basement for projects and tinkering, etc.
It quite literally means that I will have to work 5-8 years longer before retirement to afford the excess we paid over a condo in a similar neighborhood. To me, that tradeoff (which is enormous - 12-20% of my prime adult years) is worth it.
The result is that while purchase prices (which are unregulated) have continued to increase in line with the rate of increase in other desirable world cities, rent prices are increasing at a much lower rate - and they started relatively (compared to purchase price) low to begin with.
Of course it's not a perfect system and i wish they'd cut down on the burocracy to enable building more units faster, but it did show an effect.
(Don't get into a suburb trap though. Mixed use is best to reduce unnecessary traffic.)
Dense development is cheaper in both the short term & long term, if we remove zoning barriers to it we can have affordable, unsubsidized and non-rent controlled apartments in Seattle. Instead we mandate worthless parking be built, despite that it is extremely costly and goes unused quite often, while capping and limiting how large & tall buildings are, kneecapping sustainable, affordable housing.
It's impossible to solve affordable housing
by constructing more buildings and
regulating prices.
It's impossible to solve affordable housing by constructing more buildings and regulating prices. The only solution is to decrease demand, and large scale UBI helps do that because it frees people up to move to cheaper cities without having to worry so much about finding a job there.
There's a ton of affordable housing in the United States, the problem is the lack of jobs in those locations.