The real issue is that (1) people want housing to be affordable and (2) people want housing to be an investment, and this is simply not sustainable. It's obvious. Only the first few generations get to have both, everybody else gets fucked. They will give you a bunch of reasons that all sound very different but somehow all magically take the side that favors (2). Weird. At this point for housing to become affordable the prices need to tank. This can be achieved in many ways but nobody is going to vote for any of them because of (2). Housing is a massive political sticking point. Too many people have too much of their livelihood invested in their house. Their votes are easily manipulated. You say build more, I guarantee that the build rate will be such that prices are not affected negatively. You can try to lower demand by raising ongoing fees in order to make housing a worse investment in hopes to drive out foreign investors and other speculators but clearly this will only work if prices drop and that will not happen because of (2). Things outside of voter control, specifically owner-voter control, need to crash the housing prices for the current generation to afford a house. _And_ the growth must be kept down to around inflation levels, because otherwise the problem is just postponed. The problem with California is that there hasn't been anything outside of voter control to affect housing prices like in other states. People are adamant to stay where they are and there are no big enough disasters to damage the properties.

You can have affordability and home investment as long as the populations are not the same. If we rezone the vast amount of under two story residential we open up the ability for cheap high rise apartments and condos.

This doesn't lower the value of the two story homes, it simply allows them to be bought out and developed. You say people are adamant to stay but I'm not sure that's true. You do see turn over, it's simply a limited supply.

I don't understand. Investment growth means house/condo prices keep going up. New houses/condos sell for market rates. The smallest places, studios, are already out of control. Building more at these prices is not building affordable housing. And everything is interconnected because it is a market. The only way things get better for renters is if they get a lot worse for owners.

Single family homes and cheap apartments serve different populations. There's some market pressure, sure, but the family looking to buy a $1m+ home is not in the same market as a studio renter.

Adding more studios won't crash the single family home market but will mean cheaper studios.

Studios are already ridiculously expensive.

More supply would lower the cost. My point is more supply of studios would not greatly lower the cost of single family homes so we can have our cake and eat it too. Landlords would take a hit but they could also decide to redevelop at a higher density for more revenue. No one has to get screwed as long as we're willing to live near higher density construction.

Actually affordable studios would have impact, significant impact up stream. Also, what are you trying to solve? A semantic argument or the need for people to live comfortably? Last generation got there first so they get houses, this generation got here last so they get studios?

>Last generation got there first so they get houses, this generation got here last so they get studios?

This is a self defeating sentiment. You're not going to drive homeowners out without buying them off. You're not going to serve more people with low density housing. Its just how it is.

With the availability of cheaper high density housing young people can at least start saving. There can still be nice high rise condos but the idea that everyone in LA and SF can have a single story home is just not going to happen.

False.

http://www.savingcommunities.org/issues/taxes/landvalue/

What are you saying is false?

"Cheap homeowner taxes doesn't really change anything" is absolutely false.

Economic rents, unearned income, asset appreciation, constrained supply.