Re:U.S. house prices are rising exponentially faster than in...
by sokoloff on Saturday October 30, 2021 @03:55AM
(#29046917)
People who wish to live in areas of three story multi-family structures that fill the lot should be able to find or make places where that’s legal and the predominant style, I agree. (I’m opposed to the effective exclusion of that via pervasive 1/2 family zoning.) Equally, people who don’t want to live like that should be able to find or make places where detached 1-3 family buildings that don’t fill the lot are legal and the predominant style. (I’m opposed to zoning laws/changes that prohibit these neighborhoods as well.)
Forcing everyone to live in what they consider an undesirable hellscape isn’t good policy in either direction.
If the town is expanding then the supply of housing goes up along with the demand and prices stay the same, i.e. proportional to the cost of constructing new housing.
Once you reach a certain point you have to build taller buildings which are more expensive to build and then housing prices would reflect the higher construction cost, but this only applies to urban areas and the costs only get really high when the buildings get really tall.
If you converted some of the suburbs to three story buildings that filled the lots, the cost per square foot wouldn't be much higher than it is for single family homes, but there would be ten times more housing per acre. Doing this is prohibited by zoning, which is the real reason why housing is unaffordable.