Re: (ReacTor) Five Unconventional SFF Road Trips

On Sat, 5 Apr 2025 18:17:23 -0400 (EDT), kludge@panix.com (Scott
Dorsey) wrote:

Scott Lurndal <slp53@pacbell.net> wrote:

Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> writes:

 

One of the reasons the US is having an affordable housing shortage is a
shortage of construction workers to build the housing.  I suspect there
isn't a complete overlap in the workforce building factories vs. housing
but I'm pretty sure there is at least some.

>
This is true, and since so many of the construction workere are Hispanic
immigrants, it's not going to be getting better any time soon.  Back in
the fifties in Pittsburgh they were all Italian immigrants.  Now the folks
who did my roof were all Salvadorians.
>

The other (and likely more impactful) reason is that it is far more
profitable for the home builders and contractors to build high-end
housing than affordable housing.

>
THIS is the real problem at least around here.  Why should I build
affordable housing when for not much more I can build a huge mansion
out of cardboard and staples and sell it for considerably more profit?

Particularly in cities where the people who approve the permits are
amenable to cutting down the number of affordable units required as
the planning process goes on. Without requiring them to provide the
very off-street parking that the affordable units were a trade-off
for.

There is a /lot/ of discussion on NextDoor on this. Of course, much of
it is NIBMYism due to the historical nature of housing in NE Seattle
(lots of single-family homes in neighborhoods which have become
traditional -- my house is nearly 100 years old, and it was part of a
development). But the obvious failure to get affordable housing built
(the current excuse is that, by building housing for people makeing
$100K/year or more, less expensive housing will be opened up for those
flipping burgers) is undeniable.

To some it extent it is the old old story: they don't mind "them"
cooking their food, waiting on their table, checking their groceries
out, and so on, but they don't want "them" actually living in their
neighborhoods.

And when someone actually /does/ build truly affordable housing -- it
is attacked as being "too small". As if affodable housing is ever
going to produce Bill Gate's house in Medina. Or anything much beyond
a starter home, and often not even that.

Still, there is hope: so many non-affordable units are being produced
that a glut may happen, and prices drop. Real estate is a matter of
supply and demand, after all, and the builders may find that they have
collectively behaved very stupidly, who can say?.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"