Re: the skyrocketing cost of property insurance

On 2024-08-29, JAB <here@is.invalid> wrote:

How High Home Insurance Costs Threaten Affordable Housing
>
Developers and landlords of subsidized housing, who cannot raise rents
or charge more for starter homes, say property insurance increases
could put them out of business.
>
For the poorest Americans, finding an apartment to rent or a home to
buy often means tapping into a vast network of nonprofit groups that
use public and charitable funds to rehab or build affordable housing.
Over the past year, the skyrocketing cost of property insurance has
put that network on shaky ground.

The housing "system" as we currently know it in the US is bound for some
upheaval for sure.  So many factors at play:

* developers only wanting to build McMansions because the markup is
  greater.  No one wants to build houses for poor people, too little
  profit.

* Places like Houston opening up lowland flood-prone areas to
* construction, and ensuing disastrous damage in hurricanes

* Price of insurance rising as damage claims rise

* Price of houses rising beyond reach of average homeowner

* etc.

There was a good article somewhere - maybe the Urbanist or Curbed or
something - about types of housing that once was permitted that no
longer really exists: things like group houses, boarding homes, other
places where you could get something small for less money, etc.  All
gone and mostly for legal reasons.  The American market has been reduced
to individual free-standing houses, apartments, and condos (often
free-standing, sometimes semi-detached).  All more expensive options.