Re:Baby boomers are becoming homeless at a rate not seen sin...
by phatfish on Monday September 25, 2023 @02:03PM
(#37648043)
I read today that there are 7 billion square feet of unsold homes in China. Apparently no government can get housing right. The west has too little due to bad regulation & NIMBYs.
China built too much (due to certain regulations being too lax it seems, and corruption probably).
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/even-chinas-14-bln-popul...
Re:Baby boomers are becoming homeless at a rate not seen sin...
by mattnewton on Tuesday September 26, 2023 @10:04AM
(#37659484)
I think both are failures of planning over markets. China propped up giant companies that built whole cities speculatively, but in the US it’s a that they have comparatively strong municipalities that prevent new building in their neighborhoods. I think the solution there is to weaken the strength of these zoning laws. We have been kinda running an experiment across states and cities and can see the housing crisis is worse in places with stricter zoning laws. https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN12195
Basically all of them? All you need is minimum parking + a height limit. Since the ROI of the lot is a function of units *average price, and a height limit + parkinng requirements caps the # of units per lot, the average price has to be higher for it to make sense to an investor.
Also it’s worth noting that supply is just incredibly constrained vs demand in every major American city. Anything to help the supply side decreases housing costs across the board, even if it’s luxury housing.