Key Points
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The U.S. is grappling with an affordable housing crisis.
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Part of the issue is that cities are already overbuilt.
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Strict laws make it harder to construct affordable homes, leaving more people in the lurch.
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It shouldn’t really come as a surprise to learn that a lack of affordable housing is a major issue in the U.S.
A 2024 Pew Research Center survey found that 69% of Americans are “very concerned” about the cost of housing. And that’s understandable.
Households are considered cost burdened by the Department of Housing and Urban Development when they spend more than 30% of their income on housing. But by that standard, roughly 31% of Americans were cost burdened in 2023. This includes both people who rent their homes and people who own them.
Some would argue that building more affordable housing is the way to solve the nation’s crisis. But this Reddit poster brings up a good point.
While they agree that affordable housing is an issue, they want to know how it’s possible to build more housing if all of the desirable land in the country is already taken.
It’s a valid question. But there’s more to the story than that.
Options for housing still exist
The poster here argues that while there is new construction in the U.S., it’s not taking place in cities where people want to live and can have access to jobs. They feel that because demand for housing is still centered around established neighborhoods, it’s going to be impossible to build affordable homes.
One commenter made a good point. There are areas of the country that are not yet overbuilt and where affordable housing can go. But to make that desirable, transportation infrastructure needs to be improved.
A lot of people opt to live in cities because it can be pretty easy to get by without a car, which is yet another household expense. If transportation options are built up around suburbs, it could help relieve some of the density issues cities are experiencing while opening the door to building homes on cheaper land.
Another issue is that many zoning regulations prohibit cities from building multi-unit homes like duplexes and triplexes. To a degree, this does people a disservice, making it harder for them to find affordable housing in areas they would want to live. Relaxing these zoning laws could lead to extra housing units.
That said, the rapid expansion of multi-unit homes has the potential to burden school districts and have other unintended consequences. So there are different sides of the argument to look at.
A problem that needs to be addressed
Clearly, lawmakers will need to prioritize affordable housing if they don’t want the current crisis to get worse over time. But that will likely entail a combination of easing certain restrictions and looking at the situation from a broad perspective.
One thing lawmakers could do to help solve the affordable housing crisis is incentivize companies to accept remote work situations. This allows people to live in areas of the country that are more remote and less populated, where land is cheap and housing can be less expensive.
People may be hesitant to move to rural or underdeveloped areas for fear of not being able to get jobs. If lawmakers can help solve for that, it could open the door to more housing options in parts of the country that are currently underutilized for that purpose.
The post How Can We Lower Housing Prices When Desirable Land Is Already Taken? appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..