The Biden administration announced new steps Friday to ensure access to affordable housing, launching a slew of resources to convert high-vacancy commercial buildings to residential use.
We study the city-wide effects of new, centrally-located market-rate housing supply using geo-coded total population register data from the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. The supply of new market rate units triggers moving chains that quickly reach middle- and low-income neighborhoods and individuals. Thus, new market-rate construction loosens the housing market in middle- and low-income areas even in the short run. Market-rate supply is likely to improve affordability outside the sub-markets where new construction occurs and to benefit low-income people.
Turns out there may be a meaningful difference between randomly cutting taxes from businesses and building a bunch of new housing.
Seattleite here. We also focused on supply side housing issues. We passed a ballot initiative last year that allows the city to establish its own housing developer which will compete with capital to build public housing.
It’s a supply side issue AND a capitalist greed issue. Don’t listen to this person.
We passed a ballot initiative last year that allows the city to establish its own housing developer which will compete with capital to build public housing.
Okay, then how is this going? We have our own developer, have we bought properties to convert into affordable housing?
I didn’t say “don’t believe this person” I said “don’t listen to them” meaning I think your stance doesn’t fully reflect reality with regards to this topic. I don’t think you’re a liar, I just think you shouldn’t be the only voice in the thread speaking for Seattle when I have an opinion to share too. Sorry if my words were offensive; it was meant to be dismissive but not offensive.
Looks like the board meets at the Capitol Hill library branch. Also I was wrong about how long ago the vote was, it was in February 2023. I’m a bit time blind so I kinda suck at that, sorry 😅
It seems like they are still setting up shop and laying the groundwork to get things done. The worst thing about government in my opinion is how damn slow everything moves.
I’m in agreement. Also in Seattle. The median house price in Seattle is over $800,000. Down a whopping 2%. This means you’d have to make over 200k a year to afford your mortgage. How many more apartment units will trickle this down the other 50% or 75% to make it affordable to everyone? People need to be realistic. Bans on for-profit home ownership need to be part of the mix here, not just more supply.
I could see a private ownership of an actual person being allowed 2 homes in Seattle. Corporations and any lateral, upwards, or subsidiary companies attached to the same board can only own up to 5 units or something for airbnb type situations. Anything over that, they have to register as a hotel and follow hotel rules.
China seems to be having some of their own real estate issues and are maybe pulling out of the US, some of our rent decreases might be because of that too. A little of it might take care of itself? Just a guess, but I hope we continue to look at everything. No one can afford to live in Seattle doing the low level jobs, so stop complaining about the lack of workers you shitty person at the grocery checkout. We were becoming San Francisco and I don’t think anyone wants that.
One to four units can only be privately owned, 5 to 8 units can only be owned by a registered company, more than that must be run as a non profit (ideally a state corporation).
People are only allowed to own one property in a 50km radius (meaning that if you own a 4 unit you pretty much have to live in it unless you live in the next city over).
I’m not sure how you would do the non-profit since a lot of corporations already own high rises with “luxury” apartments. Are you saying they would be grandfathered in?
I don’t think I agree. All those real estate greeds are going to switch to non-profits then. There are ways to abuse that system and they surely would.
Well they can, it just means that the building management needs to show that all the money they get gets reinvested in the building or put aside for repairs. Non profits are much easier to investigate than private companies because they need to be able to justify everything they spend so they don’t overcharge. If it’s a state corporation? Even better, profits get sent to the government coffers to spend on services and you’re sure that the charges are lowered the next year. That’s how our health protection works for anything related to roads where I live and there’s a pretty good reason why it’s the province where it’s the cheapest to insure a vehicle!
they need to be able to justify everything they spend so they don’t overcharge.
I don’t think you’ve worked with non-profits before. Justify to the government or to the board? I’ve only worked with a couple and the salary of the people running it can be very high, look at Goodwill. Non-profits are just quiet enough and loose enough for them to take advantage. That’s a nope on my side.
Not everyone wants to own, even when housing was affordable there was still a bit more than 30% renting.
At the point we’re at there’s more competition to own because renting is so expensive that it’s way more logical to purchase, flood the rental market to crash prices there and people won’t buy at a ridiculous price, they’ll simply rent instead, lowering pressure in the whole market.
Disagree with what you’re saying though there is some truth in what you’re saying:
We’re low on supply on housing in major business areas, because we haven’t kept up with house manufacturing for like 20+ years. If we just allow developers to build what they like, yeah they’ll mainly aim for luxury apartments/condos which only the rich will be able to afford. There will be strong resistance from the landlords to drop the property/rent value since the property is constructed to be more luxurious, so we’d need a ton of those luxury homes before medium and low income homes get built or become available (through price drops). That’s why, governments need to require some low income/median income offered units to help house more people with these new units until supply catches up or some other way to ensure that lower income people (non-rich) are able to afford homes.
Overall, making more homes is the ultimate solution to our low supply problem, we can argue of better ways to make more homes, get more average/median people housed, and decrease living costs, while we make new homes. Otherwise, we’ll be here arguing about what to do, and letting the problem continue to fester instead of refining imperfect solutions.
That’s why, governments need to require some low income/median income offered units to help house more people with these new units until supply catches up or some other way to ensure that lower income people (non-rich) are able to afford homes.
But they don’t, they want to make money too. Tell me specifically how the developers and “luxury” home creators are trying to make that happen. I’ll give you a hint, they’re not which is why trickle down housingTM doesn’t work. Developers are great at getting the laws to work in their favor by using cash.
First, take care of corporations buying apartment buildings and homes for short term rentals, then we can talk about supply.
Trickle down housing doesn’t work. The end.
I know you don’t care about evidence, but for anyone reading who does, here’s a study from Helsinki.
https://ideas.repec.org/p/fer/wpaper/146.html
Turns out there may be a meaningful difference between randomly cutting taxes from businesses and building a bunch of new housing.
Dude, I live in Seattle, I live in the evidence. The only reason rent went down in Seattle is because they busted the price fixers.
https://www.propublica.org/article/yieldstar-realpage-rent-doj-investigation-antitrust
Seattleite here. We also focused on supply side housing issues. We passed a ballot initiative last year that allows the city to establish its own housing developer which will compete with capital to build public housing.
It’s a supply side issue AND a capitalist greed issue. Don’t listen to this person.
Did they also take away the ability to buy your way out of providing affordable housing?
I don’t know, I’m not on the city council so I don’t have all the details. I would hope they do approach that issue though if they haven’t already
Okay, then how is this going? We have our own developer, have we bought properties to convert into affordable housing?
Also, what shouldn’t they believe about my posts?
I didn’t say “don’t believe this person” I said “don’t listen to them” meaning I think your stance doesn’t fully reflect reality with regards to this topic. I don’t think you’re a liar, I just think you shouldn’t be the only voice in the thread speaking for Seattle when I have an opinion to share too. Sorry if my words were offensive; it was meant to be dismissive but not offensive.
You can find out directly how things are going, here: https://www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/public-participation/boards-and-commissions/seattle-social-housing-public-development-authority-board
Looks like the board meets at the Capitol Hill library branch. Also I was wrong about how long ago the vote was, it was in February 2023. I’m a bit time blind so I kinda suck at that, sorry 😅
It seems like they are still setting up shop and laying the groundwork to get things done. The worst thing about government in my opinion is how damn slow everything moves.
That’s hilarious.
Yeah, the developers aren’t slows af, lol
The paper came out before that investigation was opened, so unless the paper is wrong, you’re probably wrong.
On Helsinki? An old world town that has way different living standards and free healthcare?
I’m in agreement. Also in Seattle. The median house price in Seattle is over $800,000. Down a whopping 2%. This means you’d have to make over 200k a year to afford your mortgage. How many more apartment units will trickle this down the other 50% or 75% to make it affordable to everyone? People need to be realistic. Bans on for-profit home ownership need to be part of the mix here, not just more supply.
I could see a private ownership of an actual person being allowed 2 homes in Seattle. Corporations and any lateral, upwards, or subsidiary companies attached to the same board can only own up to 5 units or something for airbnb type situations. Anything over that, they have to register as a hotel and follow hotel rules.
China seems to be having some of their own real estate issues and are maybe pulling out of the US, some of our rent decreases might be because of that too. A little of it might take care of itself? Just a guess, but I hope we continue to look at everything. No one can afford to live in Seattle doing the low level jobs, so stop complaining about the lack of workers you shitty person at the grocery checkout. We were becoming San Francisco and I don’t think anyone wants that.
I’ve got similar ideas!
One to four units can only be privately owned, 5 to 8 units can only be owned by a registered company, more than that must be run as a non profit (ideally a state corporation).
People are only allowed to own one property in a 50km radius (meaning that if you own a 4 unit you pretty much have to live in it unless you live in the next city over).
I’m not sure how you would do the non-profit since a lot of corporations already own high rises with “luxury” apartments. Are you saying they would be grandfathered in?
If it’s rental then it’s non profit, they can convert them to condos if they don’t agree.
I don’t think I agree. All those real estate greeds are going to switch to non-profits then. There are ways to abuse that system and they surely would.
Well they can, it just means that the building management needs to show that all the money they get gets reinvested in the building or put aside for repairs. Non profits are much easier to investigate than private companies because they need to be able to justify everything they spend so they don’t overcharge. If it’s a state corporation? Even better, profits get sent to the government coffers to spend on services and you’re sure that the charges are lowered the next year. That’s how our health protection works for anything related to roads where I live and there’s a pretty good reason why it’s the province where it’s the cheapest to insure a vehicle!
I don’t think you’ve worked with non-profits before. Justify to the government or to the board? I’ve only worked with a couple and the salary of the people running it can be very high, look at Goodwill. Non-profits are just quiet enough and loose enough for them to take advantage. That’s a nope on my side.
Not everyone wants to own, even when housing was affordable there was still a bit more than 30% renting.
At the point we’re at there’s more competition to own because renting is so expensive that it’s way more logical to purchase, flood the rental market to crash prices there and people won’t buy at a ridiculous price, they’ll simply rent instead, lowering pressure in the whole market.
It’s one of the many ways to lower prices!
Disagree with what you’re saying though there is some truth in what you’re saying: We’re low on supply on housing in major business areas, because we haven’t kept up with house manufacturing for like 20+ years. If we just allow developers to build what they like, yeah they’ll mainly aim for luxury apartments/condos which only the rich will be able to afford. There will be strong resistance from the landlords to drop the property/rent value since the property is constructed to be more luxurious, so we’d need a ton of those luxury homes before medium and low income homes get built or become available (through price drops). That’s why, governments need to require some low income/median income offered units to help house more people with these new units until supply catches up or some other way to ensure that lower income people (non-rich) are able to afford homes.
Overall, making more homes is the ultimate solution to our low supply problem, we can argue of better ways to make more homes, get more average/median people housed, and decrease living costs, while we make new homes. Otherwise, we’ll be here arguing about what to do, and letting the problem continue to fester instead of refining imperfect solutions.
But they don’t, they want to make money too. Tell me specifically how the developers and “luxury” home creators are trying to make that happen. I’ll give you a hint, they’re not which is why trickle down housing TM doesn’t work. Developers are great at getting the laws to work in their favor by using cash.
First, take care of corporations buying apartment buildings and homes for short term rentals, then we can talk about supply.