Government-caused inequality

Government CAUSES, does not solve, housing affordability

This is just in from our favorite planning website, The Antiplanner, "Dedicated to the sunset of all government planning"

"Last week, economists at the Fermanian Business & Economic Institute released a report estimating that government regulation increase San Diego housing prices–for both buyers and renters–by an average of about 40 percent."
  Do you really want to know why young families do not settle in Lake Oswego?  Dig deep and you will find government regulations driving up the price of housing.  All levels of government look to real estate for their largest revenue streams.  But the bulk of the huge cost of housing today is because government is starving the market of land to build homes on.  High SDCs also push up the cost of all available housing, not just new homes.

Soon, all the (relatively) inexpensive housing

will be torn down and replaced by more expensive stock,  Those who can't keep up with the rising price of houses will be consigned to multifamily housing whether or not they prefer it.  Government is creating, not solving the issue of the middle class.  Government is creating cities of haves and have-nots.  Are micro-living and shanty towns in our future?  

"Yet, the report notes, a significant portion of that land “is geographically suitable for development.”

The article continues with relevant statistics related to housing affordability that are available for the Portland market also.  The Antiplanner concludes with:

"In any case, it is clear that regulation is the cause of most if not all of the unaffordability in San Diego and most other California urban areas. Maybe this report will persuade local politicians that the housing needs of low-income people outweigh the open-space* desires of the upper classes."

* open-space, as used here, refers to land beyond the urban growth boundary.

Another motivation for keeping land so expensive is the power and control it gives to the bureaucrats to be able to direct how and where people will liive.  


Check out the Antiplanner website for the remainder of this post.