How the US made affordable homes illegal
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 15. 08. 2021
- The rules that keep American housing expensive.
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Over the past year, housing prices in the US rose precipitously. Low interest rates and millennialsâ entry into the market spiked demand across the nation, leading housing prices in some cities to increase by more than 20 percent in one year, and crushing the dreams of many would-be homeowners.
But housing prices in the US were a problem long before 2020 - and while demand is a big part of the story, thereâs an even bigger reason itâs increasingly difficult for Americans to find affordable housing: We donât have enough houses. According to one estimate, the US is now facing a nearly four-million-home shortage. And the primary reason for that shortage is whatâs called exclusionary zoning.
Zoning laws are the local rules and regulations that decide what types of homes can be built where. These rules can sometimes have good intentions. But they also have a dark history in the United States as a tool to keep certain races, religions, and nationalities out of white neighborhoods. And while zoning laws in the US are no longer explicitly racist, their effect remains basically the same: to keep affordable housing, and the people who need it, away from the wealthiest Americans.
Today, in the majority of the US, especially in cities with good jobs, itâs illegal to build many affordable types of housing. And itâs led to a widespread affordability crisis. Watch the video above for more.
Sources:
Jerusalem Demsas reports on housing policy for Vox, and sheâs written a ton about this issue:
Houses are getting more and more expensive. Thereâs a simple fix for that: www.vox.com/22464801/housing-...
What itâll take to fix Americaâs housing rules: www.vox.com/22252625/america-...
The housing shortage is making discrimination a lot easier: www.vox.com/2021/5/26/2245329...
Why the housing market boomed despite the recession: www.vox.com/22264268/covid-19...
The zoning maps in the video came from UC Berkeleyâs Othering & Belonging Institute: belonging.berkeley.edu/single...
Other data sources:
Redfin: www.redfin.com/us-housing-market
Freddie Mac: www.freddiemac.com/research/in...
US Census Bureau: www.census.gov/construction/n...
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I was a homeless child in the 70s, on my own at 15. Back then if you could scrape together any money, you could get a cheap room, I'm talking 9 bucks. There were a lot of options...people rented out rooms, cheap hotels were accessible to anyone, and once you got on your feet there were cheap apartments. Today's homeless have no cheap options. If you don't have hundreds you are outside. And there's a lot of people outside...and it's a cold place to be.
That's about 65 dollars on today's dollars, which from my experience is the usual price of hotel room
Ah
The freedom land of the 1970s
@Impersonal Immigrant thats enough to fill 5 football stadiums!
@Impersonal Immigrant why does the total percentage decrease the value of the 500k lives it impacts? A human life is a human life.
@Impersonal Immigrant the fact that on the Richest Country in the History of the World has 500K homeless is absolutely sad. We should not have even 1 person on the streets. Plus the fact that you are taking data from January 2017, and we don't know how much worse its got after the Coronavirus Pandemic.
Don't forget about how these zoning laws have made new cities increasingly car dependent.
Good mass transit doesnt exist in America like in Europe or Asia.
Which everyone will pay for not only through climate disruption but the simple cost of repairing or replacing car-centric infrastructure.
Guess you can see who's interests the laws are protecting.
@@albundy3929 You can have a peaceful neighborhood while also providing more forms of transportation besides using a car
@@albundy3929 Supposedly. But homes aren't so affordable now. Makes more sense for people to live in cars nowadays. Guess being a "homeowner" isn't for every one.
I find it incredibly hypocritical how these same people that show up to these zoning meetings to say "not in my neighborhood" and keep new housing from being built, are the same ones who complain about how something needs to be done about "the homeless problem."
Creating affordable housing is the first step to doing that, but these people care more about their property values than their own humanity.
Its really BIGOTRY, modern-day BIGOTRY hidden is myriad of fancy arguments.
Lets not shy away from calling them out & be side tracked by non- issues..
They don't want to help homeless people, they want to get them off the streets i.e. forcibly remove them
Abandon zoning boards all together and let natural demand do itâs thing, youâll have more than enough to go around.
Anyone in their right mind would want their property values to go down because that would make their property taxes go down.
@@garrettstephens91 Yea, my favourite day is the one I find out Iâm underwater on my mortgage; that would be just awesome đ
âWhat do we want?â
âAffordable housing!â
âWhere do we want it?â
âNot in my neighbourhood, itâll hurt my property values!â
xD
Same thing with public transport lol. No the people with houses don't want to be associated with "the lower classes". They have spent their entire lives segregated and sheltered from anyone not like them and now have to work endlessly for their master to afford their toys. No people like that are the embodiment of the issue. They are bitter slaves chained to their worthless stuff and have tuned into the culture of discrimination and competition for resources. Make them pay for something twice the real price and make them think that only the most privileged get to live in a house and drive a nice car. It's utterly sick but they are in sense above all others if you think about it they were specially chosen by their little corporation because of their exemplary records and ability to deliver profits.
Exactly. So-called "affordable housing" is welfare housing that attracts undesirables in spades.
@@michaelmullin3585 you are aware that OP is mocking you, right?
If the gubbament takes an action that steals $$$ from you, they should have to compensate you for it.
@@michaelmullin3585 that's the general misconception yes. Thanks for proving OP right in your own little way smh
The San Jose petition against the construction of housing for their ownâs kids teachers is awful! Shame on those who signed it!!
wait what? why tf they do that tho
Supposedly because of property value
Right! I mean we're talking public school teachers here, not ex-convicted felons, geez
The way the parents see it, itâs just giving a reason for teachers not to commute 30 minutes to an hour to the school like many families do. On top of that, it lowers their property value. The meetings are (knowingly) full of homeowners. If you donât go to the meetings, you donât get a say, so go to the meetings.
To be honest I live in San JoseâŠThey didnât mention it explicitly in the video. But the issue was they wanted to use commercial zoned land for housing. The district they wanted to build in was Willow Glen. It made sense on paper đ to demolish unused or empty business centers for affordable housing. But some of the older generation people of a certain social economic background really donât like changeâŠIE Old School âChads and Karensâ. I think it would be a great idea to change out unused properties into affordable housingâŠor put housing on top of malls, since they already have the allotted parking spaces. Or access to public transit.
This isn't just an American problem, but also in Canada. Canadian housing prices are at an all-time high, and completely unaffordable.
Well regulations are bad,but only when a black liberal says it is
That's how America works,Vox somehow used the Race in this issue.
That depends on location. The big cities are unaffordable, smaller towns are not out of reach (yet!).
@@aletheiai Towns in Canada may not be as expensive but they are more expensive that towns of their size in most countries.
@@colinqualm6422 Nah ,you have no idea what you're saying. Netherlands is nothing like this
@@gidd your right you can't compare it with America for example, but it is a rising problem.
In my country, the Netherlands, housing prices have also gone through the roof! One of the reasons is, that mortgage rates have been low for years and that ( wealthy) people in general invest in real estate. We do not have the strict zoning laws mentioned in this video, in our densely populated country row houses and semi detached homes are the norm. However, we have a ton of karens and darens in our little country that suffer from the not-in-my-backyard syndrom. Im my town, a project developer wants to repurpose several old commercial and school buildings and turn them into appartments for young people to prevent them from moving to the nearby bigger cities. Many people in the surrounding neigbourhoods have signed a petition against it! And the same people are complaining about the lack of teachers, doctors, nurses and restaurant staff in our town!
There are such obtuse people everywhere then...
Thanks for the input. I agree that it's not about the zoning law, but it's about the cost of housing and the cost of the land. And why is the cost of the land so attractive? It's about the services the municipality provides and the job opportunities in that area, that's what people are willing to pay for living in that city. If the land is too expensive and there isn't a job market, or if people cannot afford to live there, then it doesn't work. Similarly, this is why you see so many remote digital service workers leaving north america to go to greener pastures, such as Mexico or Portugal because it's the lower cost of living.
Yeah there is something really damaging about the Boomers. I've found that they're extremely predatory and scared oh my god so paranoid to lose their little feudal society. They will sabotage public projects like this to deny the youth affordable options. This is what happened in California with public housing, the homeowner residents will petition against it. Meanwhile you have a young person working full time not able to make ends meet and then you get sabotaged by some pig who skated through life a few decades ago.
@@jamesbra4410 Well, to make matters even more complicated: some of the people who signed this petition actually live in public housing! They are certainly not super rich, but they are kind of well off, having lived in those (subsidized) public housing for decades, which can be quite nice in my country, like 2 story duplex houses with front and backyards, having enjoyed stable jobs for decades, and now those baby boomers do not want to look at 3 or 4 story affordable appartment buildings for young people! So the young people stay in the big cities after they have finished college! And take up jobs in those cities! Which is bad for smaller towns in our country!
In netherlands its much easier to buy a home so poor people can take advantage of rising prices. Here in Norway you cant borrow over 5 times income and you need 17.5% equity. Norway is the perfect example that goverment regulations to prevent "speculation" is just making housing more and more expensive.
For me as an European and urban planner, it is interesting to see how single-family housing policy in the USA is finally reaching its limits.
Detached houses may be in demand, but they take up the most space per capita, generate a lot of car traffic and create monofunctional quarters.
Significantly more apartment buildings are needed in connection with local public transport. Affordable living space can then be created with public funding.
Incidentally, the urban sprawl can also be curbed somewhat.
In short, it needs actual regional and urban planning.
And as the climate crisis gets worse those single family housing units are going to have to go anyway.
Good insight. Too many cars is the worst! I live in Florida and what is most frustrating is all the beautiful plots of native forest that is just now being sold for commercial development, aka tacky boxes with parking lots :/
We need more dense, affordable housing for the average first time homebuyer to enter the market, not shopping malls.
Unfortunately real estate can be very lucrative and renting is the new form of income for many..
I feel like they also tend to be solely housing areas... you cant "live there" like you can in Europe.. with shops and stores and restaurants.. you have to drive to get to those places
Detached housing is not really in demand. Many places had already started changing laws when this video was made to make it easier to build housing, but it is not immediately going to fix anything.
Most modern apartments are basically giant parking garages so your little theory failed.
Now if they built courtyard style apartments instead of luxury apartments that would affordable housing, if we built starter homes instead of mini mansions thatâs affordable housing.
The bank said i can't afford a ÂŁ1,100 a month mortgage, even though i've been paying ÂŁ1,300 a month rent for the last 6 years :/
LOL wow, mind blowing, seriously!!!!! :/
It should be easier.
Its about the "gerbil wheel " effect , multi family apts make it worse , rents become the same or higher than a house
@@onebridge7231 same thing here(u.k), if youâve not got a lot of cash sitting there they wonât do it (even if youâre smart and would rather have that sitting cash in gold for example)
Cause the 1100 doesn't include taxes or insurance.
And then people wonder why 20 and 30 and 40 and 50 year Olds are still living with their parents
@Impersonal Immigrant well itâs shameful if youâre not even trying to get out of the basement
@@SamTheMountainBikeBeast most of houses or apartments don't have a basement. If you're working and sharing the costs, why should it be shameful?
@Impersonal Immigrant it may not be shameful, but for LGBTQ youth and those with abusive families, living with their family may not be an option.
@@SamTheMountainBikeBeast I Live in San Jose my dude. Why you dissing my man cave. đ Weâre going to split up the house into four separate living areas but build the House as one unit. Itâs the loophole in the zoning laws. So itâs still one big single âfamily house houseâ. Then if anyone moves out or dies we can rent out that space to anyone who needs a place to live. Throw solar on that baby and bam. Only have to pay Water, Internet and Streaming services. Split that up with the rest of the family and your can then save your money to actually live. Itâs possible but then again people need to have the right attitude about itâŠI grew up with only 1 bathroom in the house with like 7+ people. Shared a room with my younger brother for 20+ years the struggle is real in the Bay Area. Attitude is everything.
@Impersonal Immigrant There is no shame in living with parents. Shame is having absolutely no job and being a freeloader leaching from parents in your late 20âs.
lets not forget the richer population isnt just moving into the fancy houses they are also keeping hold on the smaller ones to rent out and hording basic living needs for profit.
Theyâve essentially turned homes into investment goods rather than consumption goods. The funny thing is that most people would do exactly what these rich folks are doing if they were in their position. Why? Because increase supply devalues their property hence the pushback via zoning. If these rich folks have fled storing their wealth in cash because cash is infinite then I can see why they donât want the same thing happening to their new store of value(homes)
Yeah renting is the reason we have the housing crisis. That and no public housing option
I actually donât see anything wrong with renting out houses as it meets the end goal of getting people in houses. Home ownership is preferred but renting has its place. Some people may not plan on being in the area that long and need a house to live in for a few years without having to go through the hassle of buying and selling. Also renters arenât liable for the property so they arenât on the hook when things go wrong that are out of their control.
The problem is the supply of homes is so low that landlords can charge exorbitant rents because there is so little competition. Donât wanna pay $3600 a month for a small 2bd 1ba? Well thereâs not many other houses available and there are plenty other folks looking who are willing to shell out that cash.
So the problem isnât renting in if itâs self, itâs that there arenât enough rentals to meet demand so landlords can charge whatever they want. Go look at rentals in Oklahoma County (which is basically the greater OKC area) and youâll see plenty of reasonably priced houses for rent. Some examples:
-3bd 2ba for $1,375
-2bd 1ba for $1,600
-3bd 2ba for $1,499
-4bd 1.5ba on a 1.1 acre lot for $1,195
-a gorgeous 3bd 2ba for $1,750
Supply in relation to demand is way higher in OKC compared to other cities where the housing crisis is hitting wayyyy harder. When supply rises in relation to demand, prices go lower đ
Well, of course they are doing it. It is smart from a profit generating standpoint. After the housing market crash and interest rates and stocks plummeting, my grandparents wanted something that was more reliable than the stock market and since interest rates were so low, CDs were out of the picture. So they started buying homes that were being foreclosed and using them as rental properties. It was great for them, not having to worry so much about money that late in their life.
@@nictipton1413 That's great for them but everyone else (working-class families that is) is caught holding the bag. Landlords contribute no value to society.
Some of the most egregious behavior on this topic comes from people who are well enough off to own their own home and worry about things like "neighborhood character" but not well enough off to actually help their children buy a place of their own. This might be the worst peacetime hazing any generation has been put through by their own parents.
A lot of those neighborhoods don't even have character to begin with. It's the same 3 houses copied and pasted for miles, making the whole neighborhood look bland and soulless.
@@camthesaxman3387 it doesnât just look that way- it is â ïž horrid!!!
My parents have hundreds of thousands at least. Close to or around a million in liquid and own a big house. They would never help me or my brother but a home. They are boomers who cannot understand why things are so tough rn
This is the refutation of "If you're homeless, just buy a house."
Okay you are homeless from 100 year living inside manhole
Get educated
@@0IIIIII if your uneducated, just be educated duh
@@axios7603 go to community college and go to state school. Take out cheap student loans and make yourself better. Itâs easy
Or "if you're poor, just have money"
If I were a teacher in San Jose and the parents blocked affordable housing, that would be the time I would resign. No appreciation whatsoeverâŠ
It's the kids who suffer.
@@siskananamuk47 what
@@siskananamuk47 and if the parents cared theyd do bettet
So you would want affordable housing on top of 82k a year? That is average for this area. It can be upwards of 97k a year. Any one making 6 digits a year can afford a 800k house. Which is what they are going for. That is saying that the teacher is married and has duel incomes. What is affordable for someone making 82k a year? I think people don't realize what teachers actually make on average.
@@TurtleWatching actuallyâŠyes, yes we do. It is a chronic problem that teachers cannot afford to live in the areas in which they teach. I have to live in a neighboring district because I canât afford to live where my students go to school.
It's very interesting.
After WW2 when there was a housing crisis the government stepped in and funded building a bunch of small, inexpensive, homes for new families.
Now, they sit by and watch an entire generation watch their dreams evaporate and wring their hands over what to do.
Or, just do nothing. Has the Federal government even remotely mentioned taking action on this? Like, real, tangible, action?
Another huge issue is large firms mass purchasing homes. Large corporations shouldn't be able to control the cost of housing.
Stop blaming corp, they can only do that if there is a housing shortage. If there is abundance of housing, corp cannot do that. Lets be clear on the root cause here..
Socialist countries hv no corporation, look how well their economy fare. Free market is a superior sys, as long the citizens can think logically & dont become bigots, which is not the case in housing. Systematic racism in housing policy & city design remains, n is glaringly clear to ppl who has a critical mindset..
That has a minimal impact on the price of homes. The total value of all real estate in America is some 43 trillions. The size of the real estate market is too large for anyone group to absorb all supply. Corporations would also have a good usage for said homes (renovating, then renting out) in any case, as it wouldn't prove economical to sit on the land. The main problem is zoning laws as shown in the video. In all cities in this nation most land is zoned for single family homes. It's not sound to house people in such buildings if the aim is affordability for reasons obvious.
@L My It does affect the price of homes because I have personally seen hundreds of homes purchased by Corporations like Black Rock that sit unoccupied for months to years because the company wants people to purchase them for $1,000,000 each when the local market dictacts that these houses are only worth $450,000 each. Either that, or they will purchase 2000 houses for 900 employees and sit on the rest to wait for themselves to grow.
Large firms are also buying up Nursing homes and Private duty=Good Luck getting anyone 1 person to be held accountable for any negligence =theyâll just throw that accountability on nurses & cnaâs and people wonder why nurses are leaving the field?! Health care is now ALL about money & politics (and in politics, no one ever gets made to take accountability)
The only reason more of a fuss is made about BlackRock et al buying up single-family homes in our media is b/c it affects the constituency that politicians and the economy have historically been the most responsive to. The single-family rental/flipper problem is a minor issue that's downstream of exclusionary zoning, supply, and affordability.
About 1/4 of homeless people in the USA are employed. And a lot of housed people pay 50% of their income or more just to stay sheltered. Can't expect people to work their way into a house.
Shocking. Meanwhile in African cities anyone earning a monthly salary of $100 can still have a rental unit, feed his wife and kids on the $100 monthly salary...
Let me take more time to study how US systems on basic housing, education and healthcare work.... I'm getting interested to learn.
So far what I have gathered, a US citizen living in a big city like San Francisco and earns $50,000 a year lives a way struggling life than a Kenyan in Africa who stays in Nairobi city but makes $4000 a year.. shocking đ€
Bad. No one should be paying more than 30%, 35 at the very most.
At least 2 of my managers at different jobs were homeless, either sleeping in their cars or on friends' sofas. My own rent was half my pay for a while, and this was at least a decade ago in Los Angeles. Things have only worsened for more and more people.
I remember this guy i met back in 1997 at a temp agency. He used to make 250k a year running a warehouse. Dude lost everything because of drugs. But he told me with all the money he was making, he couldn't buy health insurance as good as "Medicaid". . .
+
I travelled once to the US and I was shocked by how low the building were and how wide the cities expanded. Everything makes more sense now.
Developers plan it that way.
People like the idea of low density building but they don't think about the issues with it.
Thatâs because your country is literally smaller than Texas
Depends on which part of the country. The denser parts of the northeast have plenty of 3-storey houses. In the denser parts of the southeast, there are residential skyscrapers.
@Rita 25 y.o - check my vidéó Canadian problems getting there were and are quite different.
More mixed use would help a lot too. When you have a small grocery store or work is walking distance from your house it's pretty life changing.
Yeah. That was a mistake I made when I bought my current house. My next one will be within walking distance of a grocery store and at least a couple restaurants, non-negotiable.
"Multi-Family-Buildings are banned from this area" easily translates into "We don't want poor people here!" or "Keep those slaves out of my neighbourhood!"
They are r4c15t indeed.
All until homeless people show up in their neighborhood.
âDonât add housing because then homeless people will come.â Are you for real? Donât you see the effect of not enough housing, as this video clearly shows, is houselessness? Tell me what happens when you canât afford a place to live if itâs not homelessness?
I hope everyone they need to drive their buses, teach their kids, and do any work for them leave. Come here to Pennsylvania, everybody! Very few HOAs and plenty of multifamily housing available in Pittsburgh alone! (My roommate just bought a new rowhouse last year, I looked at every home of every type within his budget for months.)
which is ironic, because rent currently costs more than a morgage, insurance, taxes, and maintenance. We literally pay more to live per square foot than homeowners that live in a 5 minute walk away.
We've created a country where the best home is a vehicle not a building. That's the sound of failure.
WE SHOULD BUILD MORE APARTMENTS
@@worldwide6626 I am going to disagree. I lived in an apartment for twenty years. The same one as a matter of fact. Every single year the rent went up. My salary did not. At the end it was costing me to live on my own. And since I could not save. I could not look to move out either. Unless I wanted to throw everything away and live in my car. Oh right I couldn't afford a car while I was there either. Then the real kicker? They have rules about entering your apartment. They need to give you 24hr notice. Well it was usually about ten and covered about a three month span. So a note on the door today meant they can come in whenever September, October, and November. Supposedly because they were changing filters for the winter, but it was used blanketly. Then a day after the old note expired. New note for the next three months.
Better to have small houses than give everything to a manager that doesn't care about you from a hole in the ground.
@@zUJ7EjVD How? How does making more of a place that is run by third parties that just see you as a necessary nuisance improve everything?
@@danamoore1788 I agree. Apartments are by law ran by third parties in my area. You cannot purchase apartment (and building-space partitioned beyond a condo really) space unless you are a business. This means you can never have legal right to an apartment md so it will always be used for someone else to make a profit off of. This means as living expenses go up the property manager can raise their own income as needed as tenantsâ income remains the same.
This is a very big problem and building more will not fix this issue.
@@DepressinglyOptimistic and what if that law changed?
As a 21 year old looking for an apartment in Phoenix AZ, I was disgusted when I saw how much 1 bedroom apartments costđ. The minimum wage increased by $1 and the apartment prices increased by $400 on average đ
I had friends move down to AZ. They are trying to move back as wages arenât as high as they expected, fees (like registering their car) are expensive and their rent going up $800! So their apartment went from $1200 to $2000. They thought they would live such a cheap life there and have found itâs not. Now they are struggling to move back.
This may sound like a strange option to ya, but maybe look at other cities, towns, or villages. Phoenix might be a cool place and all, but there may be a place that you'll find to like a lot better if you give it a shot. Depending on the type of job you want to have, you could look at places across your state or the country to see what fits best for your price and job preference. It may not be Phoenix, but it will give you the time and experience to save up and move to Phoenix if you choose to do so in the future.
Rent a room in a multi-room apartment until you can afford the luxury of having your own place.
Shouldnât that be a âđâ emoji?!
My friend bought a house in Mesa 2 years ago and it's now worth double. It's not even a nice looking neighborhood. I say sell it and wait for the crash. It's ridiculous seeing rents the same in Phoenix as in LA!
I have an older lady neighbor that keep asking us to move because since we don't own our own business and don't have a nice car, it's driving down the property value of her house and she's trying to sell her house and can't get what she wants for her house till we move or hide our car. So the struggle is definitely real. She's trying to sell her house over 300k more than what it was last valued as just 10 years ago. She's already gotten over 20 offers around the price she's asking.
Boomers are the worst most selfish generation ever
She could buy you a better car and pay to fix up your home.
What a c***.
Cuntservaturds have NO business blocking anyone OUTSIDE THEIR OWN PRIVATE PROPERTY.
ANYTHING outside THEIR OWN PRIVATE PROPERTY is PUBLIC / GOVERNMENT.
Therefore, according to conservative religion freemarket anarchist ideology, they have NO business ACTING OR BEING ENTITLED TO MAKE DEMANDS ABOUT ANYTHING outside THEIR own private property. Period.
@@route66paul EXACTLY!
This is a huge problem in South Florida. I see land being cleared constantly for less-affordable housing: single-family units starting at over 500k. The rate at which high-cost, single-family housing is built exceeds the rate for commerce and multi-family units. If you want to live here, you have to buy an expensive house, then you have to drive everywhere because the nearest store or commercial area at least 3 miles away.
I concur I had to live South Florida (Fort Lauderdale ) because I couldn't afford it despite living there since coming as a child 2004. Its sad that we voted for politicians who couldn't careless about average people but willing to look out for the wealthy out of state people. Everyone I know in my former city is cost burden yet feel powerless that's beyond sad
Sounds like you should move away from there. That's what I think when I here about those hyper wealthy Silicone valley people. Eventually if they can't get a teach or whatever they will have to raise pay and stuff. These things are self defeating. The more we go to remote work the better. We can live were we want to live.
@@kellharris2491 If everyone decided to move to cheaper areas, it would simply relocate the problem to those areas. Unnecessary zoning laws are found all over the country.
To even call small single-family houses "starter" houses is to deny another extremely important fact in this. Average number of kids per household is going down. If you never have a bunch of kids, you never need to move to a big house meant for a family with a bunch of kids. The "starter" house could just as well be permanent, not a "starter" at all... but that's exactly what builders aren't building.
We are just going to import Mexicans to have a bunch of kids.
@@bixnood7273 what
They mean starter house in terms of value, i.e. regardless of family size the equity will be the bootstrap to buy a larger, fancier house in a more upscale area
@@tesmith47 That "model" worked for fifty years. I'm not sure it's going to work in the future.
@@Dwightstjohn-fo8ki that was part capitalist money scheme
_"I'm worried about my property value"_
Is basically residents saying they want to keep housing scarce, just to drive up the value of their homes.
Most of the developed world is built on the principle of funding the retirements of the elderly by not providing enough housing to everyone else.
I miss the days when the only thing that could damage your property value with an explosion in your front yard or a tall cobblestone towerâŠ
I donât blame them.
Owning a house builds equity, building an apartment building and having rental units near it would affect their equity. They are looking out for their own interests. Its not about keeping housing scarce for homeowners, only flippers, investment firms and iBuyers worry about that.
GREED. Greed and a Slaveowner mentality.
When I was in high school, I could only take the ACT once because the second exam was in a high school in the suburbs 2 miles walk from the nearest bus stop. My family was poor so we couldn't afford a car or taxi rides. I ended up getting into a great university with my SAT exam, which was much more accessible in my area, but thinking back on it still hurts. No kid should be denied an opportunity to improve his standing because his family is poor
Good job with getting your degree!
It was opposite for me, no SAT but i did ACT. My family could only afford one.
The median home price in my town is $386K. The median household income is $56K. It's going to hit the point where the economy will collapse because no one will be able to afford to do anything (dining out, entertainment, travel) other than pay their mortgage/rent.
I keep telling people if it keeps getting worse before it ever gets better we could be seeing a great depression a 2nd time around and who knows how long it will last before things get better if that happens again! Like you said if people can't afford to do things the economy will collapse because money isn't being spent around.
dont forget the property taxes...hehehehe
sounds right. and everyone wonders why the homeless rate is sky rocketing
It's not because of zoning. lol
@@mitchclark1532 I certainly think zoning leads to downstream effects that contribute to homelessness. The feeling that you canât build a normal life, a big part of which is buying a home, leads people to feel hopeless about their future. This is an increasingly common sentiment. It increases the risk for mental health problems and drug use.
So yes, absolutely, the increasingly unaffordable outlook on life is facilitating social decline on vulnerable populations
@@Sampsonoff that's like saying your outlook changes your situation. It doesn't do anything other than separate yourself from reality
The homeless can't afford a 10 thousand dollar house let alone a million dollar one.
@@Sampsonoff Move to a more affordable part of the United States. Stop dreaming about owning a home in Bel Air.
Parents in San Jose⊠the same people that are good enough to teach students, arenât good enough to live in the neighborhood?? Thatâs how you end up w/ teachers that Do Not Care about YOUR kids.
I left San Jose, even with a college degree, its just unaffordable to even get a studio, like I think most people complaining don't want much, just to be able to survive and save a little.
this is also why the next generation of kids will probably be the least educated american generation in recent history. Teachers as a whole just are not appreciated in their communities yet at the same time, those SAME parents who want their kids to succeed are also the ones driving the teachers out. No problem for them since they can hire private tutors but what about all the other kids who cannot afford something like this? This is exactly the problem with America. Lets be frank. Congress is owned by the rich and elite. Democracy as we know it is already in terminal decay. There is a reason why socialism is so popular amongst the younger population now EXACTLY BECAUSE the last generation AKA those in office refuse to listen and live on the rhetoric that they will go back to the good old days when they are the same people who ended that era by their wanton destruction of what made us a great country one policy at a time.
Yeah that was so messed up. Honestly, i'm shocked that any teacher with any self worth would still teach there. With parents like that those kids are already lost, no helping most of them.
@@123asap6 Couldn't have said that better myself. No one can disagree with any of that.
Although I have a feeling that boomers are technically more in favor of "socialism" because they want to ensure that their social security and medicare remain intact and aren't bankrupted due to younger folk not working and paying into their entitlements.
@Rain Raçhel bad take lol. If your teachers cannot afford to live in tbe community it means:
1. They will feel more detatched from the community they teach.
2. Longer commutes means less time doing actual work. IE tutoring, grading, etc.
Theres no benefit to having teachers unable to live where they teach, and actually makes it more appealing to skilled teachers to move to cheaper areas with competitive pay. No ones saying they need a mansion, but i've heard stories of teachers living in their cars... if you think thats normal or sane, please seek counseling.
Live in Silicon Valley. My husband is getting paid more than the average. We still can't afford a regular studio-apartment rent. We simply got super lucky with the place we have rn. The second my work authorization comes through and I'm allowed to work me and my husband are likely getting of here. It's soul-crushing.
While Portland did change their zoning, they used it to make apartments that are studio and one- or two-bedroom that are STILL absolutely unaffordable. The rent hike this year was 28% across the area. And yet only now does every business on every main road have a "now hiring" sign--I've never seen so many!
The possibility of moving out of my mother's Portland home, after being postponed year after year, doesn't seem too probable. With all this laissez-faire going around, what's to keep prices from jumping when people discover affordable, desirable areas and flock there?
Me and my parents where looking at a studio and rent was 1.2k wich isn't bad
And the owner said he doesn't trust us and that we could party
Now areas that need affordable housings are being roadblocked by residents who benefited from all this
NIMBY
NIMBY's
They are protecting the appreciation of their assets(homes) which they probably over-paid for. Most would do the same
@@RealestDave it's still selfish and exclusionary. Everyone needs a home...
@@the_rubbish_bin sorry but people are gunna act in their own best interest. You want cheaper housing which is in yours people who own homes don't want that unless they magically get to start paying less on their debt or something
im fascinated with european zoning, as living in an apartment with the stores you need right downstairs as well as good public transport due to a higher density of people, creates less of a need for a car, therefore living a healthier and cheaper life.
I Europe we have a problem when zoning is not as harsh and people straight up set small houses on fire just to drive their value down, buy multiple lots of land and build an apartment complex
That's socialism lol
@@LisaBeergutHolst You should look up the definition of socialism. You clearly donât know it.
Not healthier and definitely not cheaper. Cars still exist. The areas are highly populated and trafficked ones. In the U.S. and in Europe.
@@LuvJenniiTompul r/wooosh
1,400ft or more is only a "starter" home for a couple who want to have kids in the future. For many single people, that amount of space is like a mansion. There are more childfree people than ever before in history, yet the vast number of new and existing homes are for sizable families. All thanks to government regulations.
If you don't have children yet you don't need to live in a single FAMILY home.
it be that there are more childfree people because of the general expense of housing and cost of raising children
Yeah, and more people need to start having children and the amount of immigrants into the country (no matter from where) needs to go to zero. Childlessness = narcissism.
@@garrettstephens91why do so many people hate immigrants? I donât get it.
Would you go to the grocery store and say, "I'll pay 20% more for those potatoes"? It is the same thing. It should not be classed as any kind of investment; it is not a competition or a lottery, it is a human right, housing; just like food.
I went to university in Columbia, MO and started my career there for the first two years. We rented duplexes for all those years and there were plenty of families around us who just bought buildings, lived in one side and rented out the other side. I miss how freaking cheap it was to live there.
It's still there. Move back if you like it there.
I also lived there with my family in the 70's because my father was a university student there, I still remember that beautiful and calm city.
Its a SEC town now, 600 akid plus utilities for garbages apartments where they dont even sand the nailhole patches, they just paint over them. 3-4 kids an apt at 600$ eachfor a 500$ apartment value
But i do remember the times you spoke of, and they were nice, back then como kids wearing cords and rope and shell necklaces.
The new kids are far richer, but so boring, just a walking debit card. Stacked in apts like a wet market
@@susanholl5994 I live in Columbia. Housing prices are increasing here too, same as everywhere else. We have almost all the same development problems that the rest of the country has - too much R-1 and euclidean zoning, massive lot sizes, winding suburban stroads, bad public transit, bad cycling infrastructure, parking minimums, etc. Perhaps things used to be different, but these days it's gradually turning into just another failing American city.
My in-laws would sit around, talking about how they were going to renovate their home to get more money out of it when it came time to sell, so they could have a cushy retirement, right before nagging us for having no plans for any grandkids for them.
We were struggling, barely affording our rental space, gradually losing all of our money because everything is so expensive.
They simply didn't comprehend the times have changed. We asked the family to allow us to privately buy from them their grandmother's home, after she became unable to care for herself.
They rubbed their hands together at the prospect of selling it.
Absolutely no interest in keeping assets in the family..... Generation selfish.
*Wow!!!!!!* đ
Nursing home for them then
They think we're lazy and it would never happen to them. Did you know the credit score wasn't a thing until 1981? They ushered in this failing system and now are snobs to their children bc it failed and we can't be a part of it.
I hope those in-laws enjoy bingo nights because thatâs all they get in the Retirement home
Same here
Wait parents don't want their kids' teachers to live a reasonable distance from where they teach? ._.
I'm technically Gen Z and I'M dreading the day I may have to find myself a house of my own. If things aren't fixed fast, I fear I may never even have a new home to move into.
I'm a millennial and I am in the same boat.
me too, and as i'm starting high school and living in an area where prices of basically every kind of housing has risen, i dont even know if i'll ever be able to afford a home of my own. i dont even know if i'll ever even have one in the future, because of the sheer amount of money they seem to average.
to have an average house, you'd need an above average salary and money for other house stuff, a car, food costs, and so much more. at this point i'd be grateful if i can have my own apartment and a car or something.
i even have family members who are like 25+ that still live in the same family home with their spouse, parent(s), siblings, etc. even when they have their own kids, they have to live with their parents because even with their jobs they simply cannot afford a house.
one of my cousins in 28 almost 29, she's married, she works as a nurse, and her husband also makes his own money. but even for them they have been looking for almost 7 years, and haven't seen much hope in buying their own house. i also have a cousin who has a 5 month old, and is married. she also works in healthcare, and makes a good amount. however the prices in our city/ state/ country are so high that all 3 of them, along with her 2 younger brothers, and her parents all have to live in the same apartment because of how expensive housing is.
A millennial in Eastern Europe here. I'm about to hit 40 and I've been renting for 3 years, with no prospect of home ownership in sight. The prices people put up for their rent/houses are at least 50% over what the space is realistically worth.
I guess I'll own nothing and be happy about it.
@Haku Yuki The problem is that you need a permit to build a house, and it is hard to get one. Also aren't people lazier nowadays?
@Haku Yuki Exactly
This is clearly affecting businesses. The company I work for is loosing younger employees as they are moving to areas far, far away that have more affordable homes. The younger generation just cannot find a place around Boston to buy. Although this predominantly started as an intentional racial divide it has become a class divide as much as anything now.
Thank you! We don't talk about the class divide enough.
Pretty much racism backfired in a big way.
Yup, and then after all those people improve the area that they moved to, in come the rich vultures overpaying and buying up multiple properties, flipping them, etc. There's nowhere for the working class to go anymore. There needs to be cities where public housing is done right, and for-profit real estate grifting is illegal.
That's the right answer. When rich people can't get poor people to brew their lattes, the zoning rules will change. That said, people don't want nuclear plants etc anywhere close either.
Whites and homeless are the new blacks
I presume the same parents that are against building affordable housing for teachers are also the parents that sit and endlessly complain that teachers aren't doing enough for their precious children.
That's just my theory though...
@@H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H good ol American hate. We got a tough guy here folks
You know what really weird a bedroom community with out any kids in it... đ
What does affordable housing mean? Do we build a standard unit for all teachers? What if one teacher lives alone and the other has 5 children? Personally I would prefer if we built more multi family properties and allowed teachers to receive the proceeds from such properties until they leave the school. That way there would be more housing, increased income for teachers, more jobs in rental management, etc.
Sounds about right.
@@EvergreenVB that's pretty much what affordable housing is.
Another issue is housing being treated as an investment. The investment is rising in value, but the wages aren't.
Dave Chappelle just blocked affordable housing in his town in Ohio
There is a saying in Brazil: money whitens
F that guy he isn't even funny.
40 acres and a mule there still owing.
That's around $400,000.00 I would say.
@@annieeiloveyou2052
Yeah, that would make a big difference to a lot of people, even after being divided up amongst descendants of those who it was promised to and who didnt get it.
I fully support that. The vast majority of freed people did not get the reparations they deserved and were entitled to, and its not too late to make good on that debt.
Wouldnt make a big difference to Dave, as he was quick to brag about he has a lot of money and isnt afraid to over rule local democracy with it.
1,400 square feet is a starter home? That is my perfect sized forever home. Small enough to keep clean easily, but enough space for a kid and a few cats.
I suppose that also includes yards.
That starter home was home to many 4-6 person families, and sometimes grandma moved in also. Now, people expect 2000 - 3000 sq ft and a 3 car garage for a family of 4, 3 or 4 cars and an RV and/or a boat. Affordable housing should include manufactured homes and parks, but that type of housing is not included at all.
When we buy in an area and pay for the space and low density, that is our choice. If there was enough demand for smaller units and lots, it would be built. Maybe not in the old established areas(that are zoned as low density communities) - why people feel that we owe them a spot in a low density area for high density cost is beyond me. There is no free lunch, you pay for what you get.
Totally agreed.....but I'd like it all for myself! Lol.
Try something smaller for people (not cats.) I have a 2 bedroom 1000 sq ft home and quite comfortable.
That's why people now a day's need to work into their 60's. My grandfather retired in his early 50's on a small pension.
Thank you for raising awareness on the reasons why America is facing this problem.
This problem has been around for many years only reason why it's now being covered more is because it now effects everyone smh
America has way too many people. We need to curb immigration AND encourage companies to open offices in cheaper areas.
@@shanicejohnson8498 how bout fix zoning laws instead?
It's basically just the upper middle and upper class chocking everyone else out of housing for their own benefit . Just another way wealth inequality is killing us
@@glaxxico907 their post is full of code words. they just hate " who" is coming in.
Every buyer want cheap houses, BUT when they finally become house owners.. they want their property to rise in value..
@Blessed&highlyfavored To be fair, there is (almost) no country that have free property tax.. and yet people accept it as it is..
property tax raise is a soft way to ensure only the "...." is able to live in the inner circle of the city.. while the rest live on the 2nd or 3rd outer circle..
Which doesn't make sense because the more that your property is worth, the more you pay in taxes.
The problem is treating property as an investment instead of shelter.
Wouldn't things just be so much easier if we weren't being held back by a sea of arbitrary laws and bureaucracies?
But I also donât having the federal government force us into the opposite kinds of arbitrary laws is the answer either.
Atherton has always been known as a millionaires only community for decades. With almost every Bay Area house being $1 million now, Atherton is now a billionaires only community.
And that's the way it should stay. People who can't afford to live there can try their luck in East Palo Alto.
Are you THE Alice Walton?
You donât need a billion dollars to afford a million dollar home lol
@@robinvovolka6197 Maybe :)
@@RLang03 I think the point they were trying to make is that normal sized homes go for around a million, so the larger lots would be in the many millions, hence making them only available to billionaires or similarly wealthy
Weâll done. Also, the environmental cost of single family zoning. So high.
Also the health and social cost by not being able to walk to any school, workplace, shop, leading to more malls and less mom & pop shops, leading to more obesity and alienation. The CZcamsr Eco Gecko makes great videos focusing entirely on suburbs and alternative ways to have city planning backed by studies.
The financial cost is huge too. It costs cities way more money to service a single family zoned unit than anything in a terraced house, multiplex or apartment.
@@krombopulos_michael exactly single farming lots make no tax income.
who cares
The channel "City Beautiful" is great too to check out.
More zoning laws
More parking spaces
More car dependency
More oil demand
More proxy wars
More refugees
More racism
More segregation
More zoning laws
More zoning laws
More parking spaces
More car dependency
More oil demand
More proxy wars
Basically the Domino Effect.
Never thought about it like that but youâre right, zoning is the glue that holds the military industrial complex together
@@terencemcnicholas963 invading countries destroys their oil refineries and production and war is far more costly than the oil that we supposedly invade it for. So this is false
I agree with the other points except proxy wars for oil.
Thatâs the American spirit
This is why itâs so important to participate in local elections and local politics. It will literally impact your life way more directly than presidential elections and your vote will count much more!
You said it
Correct. Finally a smart comment on CZcams.
Thanks for mentioning this :) participating in local elections is super important and it's the only way to get our elected officials to adopt ordinances that effect the change we want to see!
đđđŻ
The way this country has fallen in 7 months and what's happened in the last coupe days no one will be worrying about a seven hundred thousand dollar house We'll be lucky to live in lean two's. As far as generation x you have to work to live and that's a 4 letter word to them. Procreate? Let's hope not. In the 1st place I can't imagine anyone bringing a kid into communism.
This is true. I work as an electrician. It's not entry level houses we are building most of the time. It's big stuff.
@@AnglersUAE they don't make much profit because of the regulations being absurd
@jetpowercom Regulations too...also depending on location.
It took me 8 minutes to figure out the wooden usb sticks were actually meant to represent people.
For all the people who don't want those teaching their kids to be able to afford a home in their communities, let them try homeschooling and see if that changes their mind about it.
THIS! EXACTLY!
Hello, I have a master's degree in city planning, and I can confirm that yes to this entire video. One thing: If you support a project, make sure you go to meetings and SHARE YOUR SUPPORT, or send comments about your SUPPORT. Generally, when people support a project, they don't let anyone know. The only people who show up are the people in opposition.
Public participation in our planning processes is a good topic to bring up.. some of the problem is that our media is preoccupied with celebrity gossip and not really getting us meaningful stories about things going on in our own neighborhoods. If people aren't informed of new residential projects slated for the future how can they respond or comment?
So you agree that it is all the white people's fault?
A few big cities are hoarding the best jobs and federal subsidized houses. If there is no affordable housing, then new companies shouof have to pay a big housing tax or go where housing is cheaper. There is plenty of non-arable land that people could live on. Small towns and cities usually have more social mixing among classes.
Here in Georgia neighborhood groups had meetings to separate and rezone part of their community. They nearly rezoned the RR system and the $$$ it brought in from their community. Somehow they took the RR system from the poorer community. It was an all inclusive meeting with code words to keep others uninformed of what wa really happening. One community shouldnt thrive while the other is left in shambles.
Problem is, too many folk that would support affordability measures just don't have the financial means or leisure time to show up at planning meetings. Who is going to work that last shift, or cover child care, or give them a ride to the meeting?
I know it feels impossible but I think it is incumbent upon the government and planning professionals to go out to the communities they know will struggle to show up, build relationships there, hire some community informants, and actively solicit information in a much more accessible way, instead of sitting back and waiting for folk to show up at the planning meetings, because it will inevitably be a non-representative presence that favors the dysfunctional status quo.
I'm a paycheck away from being homeless and it's very frightening as a 58-year old woman who works full time.
I don't know what this country is coming to....
@@poollife777 ...and pray it is a cooperative type.
@@klnj9714
40 years of neoliberal economic policies pushed by Republicans and conservative blue dog Democrats. It all started with Reaganâs trickledown economics and deregulation; ever since then, we have had economic bubbles one after the other. Trillions of dollars have been extracted from the middle class and those dollars arenât coming back.
@@poollife777 u shouldnât need a roommate to afford to live somewhere
@@brittanyhenry7482
Say that again BrittanyâŠ
The scarcity of supply pushing up prices is a dream come true for every boomer that bought a house/houses as speculative investments when they were young. Trying to change zoning laws is a direct challenge to them and they've got the money and time to nag local councils to see things their way.
Single family zoning is the single greatest cause of a lack of affordable housing.
Gonna be honest here. In the case of California the asinine zoning laws seemed by and large designed to protect:
1) The beauty of the property
2) The price of the property
Rather than... you know... something sane like, 'does your city function.'
Check out how zoning works in Japan! It's backward in a good way. It is zoned at around 12 levels. Every level takes on the rules of the previous and adds more. Single-family is the tippy top, including all rules from subsequent zones. So you can take your lot and build a single-family house with a duplex out back and a shop out front right next door to a 20-floor building(but there are some rules about blocking sunlight for your neighbors).
Though Southern California canât really handle any more people with the limited water. Companies need to do more secondary locations in this day and age where it is totally doable.
â@@laurenarigo3894 Yeah, nobody talks about natural resources when doubling the available housing in an area! I hear similar things from my brother-in-law in Phoenix.
But these new, affordable homes wouldn't necessarily add new people to the city. I would think that it's mostly people who are already in the city consuming resources, wanting a place of their own finally. Like extra roommates, homeless people, young adults living with parents, etc.
In Japan there isn't any single family exclusive residential zoning and certain types of commercial buildings can be built on every lot. Heavy industrial facilities are essentially the only thing absolutely excluded from residential zones.
@@laurenarigo3894 residential consumption is less of an issue in California that trying to grow almonds in a freakinâ desert
Imagine banning multi-family housing aka the only housing that will keep your city afloat
These people are called Nimbyâs
Why is a small piece of land called a "lot"? Shouldn't it be called a "little"?
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Also has to do with the lack of investment in affordable housing/public housing. Housing is used primarily as an investment rather than the use value of someone living there
you absolutely right
The town i live in proposed affordable housing for nurses, yes nurses, to live closer to the hospital. It was shot down for the same reasons mentioned in this video
Exclusively zoning for single home family is bad for cities ?
@@edercow63 do you think hospitals are only built in cities?
@@edercow63 I'm sure it applies to whatever housing they were proposing to build. Might have been single family homes, duplexes, maybe apartments. Whatever it was, there was probably some argument made about how it wasn't good for the type of community they have. People will find reason to complain about anything.
Segregation is alive and well and it's along net worth lines. It's along racial lines too, but also net worth
Nurses make good money, why should they be subsidized? If it is a problem, maybe the hospital can build some homes for them.
NYC built up before zoning laws and to an extent solved this problem organically by building multi story apartment buildings and rowhouses to increase density. The problem with zoning is that it prohibits natural economic principles from operating to solve the supply gap.
Agreed. Markets are really bad at some things: like providing affordable health care and education. But very, very good at other things: like providing affordable housing. Americans are just terrible at identifying which is which.
There is no such thing as "natural economic principles"
This is SUCH an underrated comment!
@@botchamaniajeezus there is though ever heard of supply and demand
@@nickspeelman9174 Markets are actually good at producing affordable healtcare and education.
America's healtcare market is heavily restricted and regulated by the government.
If you want affordable high quality healtcare the best option for you is the market.
Obviously it would not be free.
The thing is politicians care more about their own party than their country. That's the root of 90% of all the problems.
America is such a massive failure in so many ways. My goodness.
Exclusionary zoning and segregation, hmmm that's the American dream.
If welfare people didn't act like trash, people who work wouldn't move away from them.
@@robertshelton3796 Yes
@@robertshelton3796 itâs bad to generalize. So many people who need help are hurt, not just by the people who abuse the system, but by people who turn them away because of the ones who abuse the system. So many times Iâve heard people make jokes about it.
@@robertshelton3796 "welfare people". what's that like social workers or something? why do you hate cps?
@@robertshelton3796 I don't know how you define acting like trash, but you can usually predict the actual crimerate in an area. Look up the Gini index.
Hereâs the kicker too: the same people who want their communities to be large single family homes are the ones that own the denser residences and smaller homes. Itâs in their best interest to keep this trend in place, they keep their wealthy and lightly populated suburbs and also make money off of skyrocketing property values/rents.
Exactly.
Well, I wouldn't be surprised about this.
iâll be real - i lived in a dense neighborhood with insufficient parking for 8 years, and circling around for half an hour looking for parking every evening, and getting parking tickets any time you donât move your car fast enough gets old pretty fast. i donât think the solution is car-dependent dense neighborhoods with no parking: folks either need parking or ideally public transportation.
From all the taxes collected from the people, local governments should build underground parking and parking houses to solve these issues. But they won't...
multi-storey carpark is your answer buddy
In a dense neighborhood you need neither of those things, you can just, WALK to the store like a reasonable person.
The easiest way to make houses affordable is to tax second/third home with 20% property tax.
Too many scalpers buying properties, then sell them at either $100K above what they paid yesterday or double what they paid yesterday.
An epidemic of homeless people? Now that's been blamed on one thing: lack of affordable housing. Another thing blamed for homelessness could be redlining, and worse, zoning.
Did you watch the video?
ok? why did u just write what happened in the video
Redlining in 2021?
Arm the homeless.
@@ShadNex it never ended....
Teachers can't afford to live in the counties they teach in, so simply drop education services in that county. Now, no one will be complaining about how multi-family zoning "ruins the character of the neighbourhood".
The residents of such areas are rich enough to enroll their kids in private schools.
@@elultimo102 Even though teachers in private schools may get paid better, it might not be enough. Even if they could afford it, the residents of the area might be hostile towards the teachers because of other factors.
@@elultimo102 as they should. let their money dry up and dry up fast as possible no reason to live off public money when you dont want average people around you.
Sadly, that is illegal
@@clairetomes617 It probably is illegal, but wouldn't it be funny? Or they could do it as a strike.
Welcome to the USA: Car-dependent hellscape.
Im from South America and it makes me sick to see how badly worker class-poor people live in America. At least here in my country anyone can build on really remote areas and get some cheap healthcare while American people are forced to live on the streets and hope to not get sick or else theyâre dammed.
it's honestly horrible. i developed an autoimmune disease two years ago when i was 19 and the late diagnosis/inaccessible treatment lead to three more chronic illnesses. theres no place in the US for young disabled people. the hustle culture, low pay, high medical bills are killing me. my diseases arent deadly if i can get proper rest and treatment but i honestly dont expect to live past 40. theyre literally working us to death here.
@@catie7466 go to europe or maybe some develloping countries where probably you will be taken care of beter. ASAP.
Si eres sudamericano, en cualquier parte de este subcontinente sin excepciĂłn alguna se vive totalmente peor que en EEUU.
Decir que en todo o algun paĂs de sudamericana la vivienda es accesible es MENTIRA y la sanidad pĂșblica en TODOS los paĂses de AmĂ©rica del Sur es un ASCO, un robo y corrupciĂłn.
La sanidad pĂșblica en Argentina, Brasil, Colombia, Peru y demĂĄs paĂses es peor que en EEUU (y si, aunque los medios lo oculten, en EEUU si existe la cobertura pĂșblica de sanidad)
I like these type of videos it shows to me as a European about the struggles of Americaâs system
Edit: before you go batter me with more comments I did not say that this is only a problem in America Iâm just saying that (no offence)thereâs a lot of flaws in Americaâs system
And their houses are built with cardboard and wood đ
Europe is no better. A lot of ridiculous zoning laws and building regulations. Hence why major European cities are unaffordable.
You make it sound like this type of problem is unique to the US. Young people can't afford to buy houses anywhere, including in Europe.
@@RBuckminsterFuller a single house probably, a small apartment yes. In suburbs area of course
He has only increased price and started was in Afghanistan their people are so powerful that they can even chew Biden and America's people body with their teeth only
They need to design cities and villages for people not for cars. Sadly this is endemic in North America, what the solution they have for climate change? Change from oil to ev but keep the cars.
A car-less city with only trains underground in my dreams. Only bikes and scooters allowed
@@PressKevinToContinue you'd still need trams/buses as well for the intermediary public transport
B-but muh freedom!đ
@@PressKevinToContinue Basically Singapore
@@PressKevinToContinue Then you are excluded the disabled, as a car is also a mobility device for us...
Iâd rather buy a piece of land and build a house myself with my bare hands at this point.
You literally can nothing is stopping you, provided you have the money and if it's on wheels it technically counts as a mobile home so you can avoid laws the dictate square footage that way to keep the price of your project down
Right to housing > Right to profit from property.
They call it the American dream because you only have it when youâre asleep
Ironically George Carlin achieved the American Dream.
Good one
Stolen comment
Yes it is a stolen comment. I reused it because I thought it was funny
I dont know why it matters to people
This hits on one of the key elements of the housing crisis, but another that it doesn't is the mass commodification of housing across the country. Many single family homes are being bought up by individual investors or large groups, like banks, and being flipped for profit - effectively removing a lot of supply from the market, or dramatically reducing the number of fixer-uppers out on the market. The conversion of housing to a mass-market, consumer asset to be leveraged for cash has also placed buyers in a weird place where sellers are treating homes like an elastic good, like an Xbox, while buyers are treating it like an inelastic good, such as food. That gives all of the bargaining power to the seller and discourages them from selling for a low or fair price.
ABSOLUTELY. Well said.
Great Wisdom
Well said! Precisely why we need to tear down these terrible government regulations exposed by the video. We need MORE housing construction to defeat the value of investors buying up homes. Those investors are predicting we'll be unable to defeat the terrible government policies causing this problem, and if we don't the investor's return on investment vanishes.
It's not just the house flippers, but the ones that buy them and turn them into rental investment properties that are also keeping them off the market. I think that's why some places increased the minimum size of new house construction. By making the homes bigger and more expensive it would be more costly for someone to try and buy one as a rental investment property.
Well, we need more housing of all types, not just big and expensive. That's the path to undermining the companies buying homes as investments. Simply build more, reduce demand, bring prices down.
America suffers from a not in my backyard problem. The answer is mixed type housing but towns don't zone for that type of housing. Towns then try to stop movements that make houses affordable like tiny houses.
This explains why some cities are so over crowded with homeless people.
Most rich people dont like seeing homeless people. They need to allow for starter homes or duplex-like housing to reduce the number of people living in the street or cars. I guess they'd rather see homeless people than lose rental income or have the value of their home/s to decrease. They are not really forward-thinking at all.
Yeah, but the whole point is that regulations need to come into play. People need to vote for better mayor's and legislators. Waiting for rich people to act against their interests is not gonna cut it.
And most real estate developers could make a lot of money building affordable rental properties. They can't because policies forbid them to do so. That was the whole point of the videi
Personally I don't like seeing homeless people, but my idea is that we should do things like
Mobile Loaves and Fishes' Community First Village in Austin, TX. Basically you make mobile home or Tiny home parks at the edge of town and have a private trade school that allows the people to learn a new skill then slowly have to pay back the company as they move out.
@Launch With Fox - define self made.
Its hard to imagine someone getting extremely wealthy with no friends, family, or mentors.
Also....plenty of people act against their self interest....they are called poor Republicans.
@Launch With Fox - do you really believe not inheriting money makes you self made?
If your parents and/or friends are well off and lend you money to start a business or help you qualify for loan or lend you their ivy league skills and connections or all of the above, I wouldnt call them self made.
I think it can be damaging to epsouse a hardwork=success mantra in America as it implies those that struggle dont work hard or arent smart when it much more nuicasued then hardwork = success/wealth
@@AmandaVieiraMamaesouCult Regulatons need to come into play? Regulations are the very reason these policies which forbid developers from making affordable properties exist. We need less regulations.
If you let developers build wherever they want with whatever parking options they want to provide, you'll end up with more diversity in housing options. Those who want parking will pay more, thus developers would be incentivized to add parking to increase profit, or reducing parking to build more housing to increase profit.
This single family zoning has much wider impacts than just the cost of buying.. also it creates un-walkable cityâs which are inefficient and force everyone into car ownership.. so itâs making the city worse except for the rich (and even them, because of the non innovative city design)
So suburban neighborhoods are ok if they are planned in moderate quantities. But cities which rely solely on single family zoning make US cities unpleasant to live in...
Yes, this is an excellent point! It makes cities less livable when they are so car-centric and makes the planet less livable too. The United States needs to cut our carbon emissions and we're not going to do it if we don't take some pretty big measures to make it so that people have quick, reliable alternatives to driving. I like that some cities are banning cars in the city center, investing in public transportation, and aiming to become more dense. Cities in Europe have great public transport, are densely populated, and are much more beautiful and livable than in the United States. I bike everywhere and I was hit by a car due to poor infrastructure for anyone who's not driving. I think we should invest, as a country, in clean, nice public housing in densely populated urban centers for whoever needs it. Residents would just pay for upkeep and utilities. I think doing so would create the more walkable, livable cities you mentioned, help alleviate poverty, and also help eliminate cars and lower carbon emissions.
@@LuneFromage We have cut our carbon emissions. The problem is the up and coming countries that are manufacturing the cheap goods we buy are building coal plants at a huge rate. If we were serious, we would not buy anything that was manufactured in those ways, but that won't happen. This is what the one world government types, the corporations want, a work force that will do anything for starvation wages - they are keeping the working class down in the US and increasing carbon emissions in manufacturing and transportation, since it is cheaper to use 3rd world workers and transport goods halfway around the world, rather than make it locally.
@@route66paul up and coming countries did our pollution for us so we can cut our carbon emissions... But for the sake of argument let's just grant you the point that the up-and-coming countries pollute only for their own interest. If you look at per-capita pollution across the world, no country pollutes more than Canada, the US, and Japan(their carbon is ok amongst OECD but their plastic pollution is stupidly high).
@@route66paul The US doesn't have enough skilled worker like Germany to sustain a working-class economic for the developing world.
@@nathanli3024 That number varies depending upon the metric, but both of you have missed a key element in the debate.
The feeling in many countries being chided and shamed by the western powers for their reckless policies on emissions and pollutants is that there was no such attitude a century ago when Europe and the US began churning out pollutants like it was candy in order to grow their economies and supplant their position of leadership on the world stage.
Itâs an incredibly complex issue that touches on centuries of historical development and without viable, cheap, efficient alternatives itâs going to be a mighty struggle to convince a political leader in Nigeria to strictly regulate gas and diesel automotives without a fully electric alternative the average Nigerian can both afford and the infrastructure of the country can sustain and scale throughout the country.
The problem with so much of the big names in the economic side of the ecological crisis is their focus on the vast dream of what the world will become with green technology rather than the basic reality of what that change means for the person that only dreams of steady work, steady pay, shelter, clothes, children with full bellies and a spouse with only minor complaints. Itâs this that makes me so admire Greta Thunberg, personally. She has this ability to shut up people in power many times her age by just simply stating their projections of what might occur thirty years from now mean nothing. Only what they are doing now matters.
The fact that we get free documentaries on CZcams by Vox is truly a gift. đ
Some important issues were overlooked in this very good video. Certainly â protectiveâ zoning laws are a problem. The building code enforcement also drives the cost of housing. Code enforcement is not keeping pace with new technologies. As new materials and construction techniques arise it takes the code enforcement offices years to approve their use. There is the problem of multibillion dollar investment banks purchasing tens of thousands of properties above and beyond market value to be used as rental properties. This artificially drives properties up in value as the typical family can no longer afford to purchase the properties. Banks and local leaders deem this good because the more costly properties are taxed at higher rates generating more revenue for cities and counties. The financial destruction in 2007 - 2008 has caused the building industry to focus on higher end construction which yield higher profits. Finally, there remains a huge deficit in skilled labor to build housing. Wages for carpenters for instance have remained stagnant for decades. Why would any young person wish to learn a trade that pays near poverty wages? I have recently retired from the building industry after working for 41 years, so I have the knowledge and experience to understand these issues. These are difficult problems to overcome. I do not have the answers to overcome the complexities of affordable housing. I leave that in the hands of people smarter than me.
price of houses skyrocketing and they're still made of matchsticks and cardboard
New houses are seriously garbage construction. It's amazing. My 1940-built house has old-house problems, for sure (being connected to century old water and sewer lines is... not great), but it was well-made (and competently remodeled in the last few years, fwiw).
@@paulyearley1084 same man
Canada has the same issue
Soon, you will see a person who earns 10k dollars a month but still homeless.
Yeah
Huh, u can buy a decent house with 40k-50k in third world
That's probably already happening
@@TvGunslingeRvT but can you get a job for 10k dollar a month in that country?
There's another documentary about people making 6 figures and still living paycheck to paycheck, make of that what you will.
This really helps me understand why my family canât find a moderate sized home⊠we have a starter home we would love to put on the market, but we canât find any affordable places to move to in our town! I can only imagine what it must be like for someone trying to find a starter home⊠itâs criminal to lock building down to luxury-only homes, but the trouble is, they still SELL. And as long as they sell, builders arenât motivated to provide smaller homes⊠on top of the issues the video brings up.
Aside from intentionally excluding people of colour (but with the same effect) this video perfectly describes what's happened in New Zealand too. Here it's the local district/city council that sets zoning laws. The national government finally decided that something had to be done so they've forced them to make many of the changes this video suggests. It'll be interesting to see how it turns out.
Glad to hear zoning and land-use policy getting more attention. One of the most important issues in North America today, but which remains criminally under-discussed
Yes lefitsts complaining about regulations while they would regulate everything cause they are radicals
@@UltraInstinctGoku69 This is not a right/left only issue both parties encourages these kind of regulations.
@@infantebenji its NIMBY.
@@UltraInstinctGoku69 It's about zoning, redlining, NIMBysm, voices of all residents (not just the single family homes). Why do you have to bring politics to urban planning? you are not very bright, eh.
Welcome to America, where only millionaires can afford a studio apartment
@@albundy3929 itâs a joke bro
I think New Zealand has the same problem
@@albundy3929 ...Cole's comment could be a fact in some cities.
@@albundy3929 . ...but those place are undesirable. That's is why they are so cheap.
@@albundy3929 How about people move to places with a good school, so that they can raise a family.
Interestingly, San Jose and San Francisco are like the only 2 places where housing costs havenât gone up this year, theyâve gone down. I live in TN. Our prices have gone up 30%. Iâm actually currently having my rent doubled by someone from California who just bought my building with his investment company, heâs promising 18% returns so yay for them
Do you live in an area people are eager to move to?
@@coopergates9680 yes, I live in the smoky mountains. its beautiful here. I know a lot of people vacation here. we weren't hit as hard as Nashville was, but it has still been brutal.
@@JacyndaMinor Crossville is one I wrote down, as it wouldn't be as much of a steam bath in summer. How's Bristol?
âIt was so hard back in my day!â
No back then to be a family it was so so so much easier.
The fact homes have gone up 100k for the median of houses just shows it all. The government canât match demand and so they drive up the price. Itâs absolutely sad.
The problem is the NIMBY's. They benefit from zoning as they already own houses in those areas and the housing shortage increases their home values. They don't want their neighborhood to change and have a "lower class" of people live there . They enjoy having less people, less noise, no congestion, lots of street parking for themselves. They will fight tooth and nail, they don't care about any societal impact.
I don't really blame them, they bought in when the zoning protection was there, but those protections should have never been there in the first place.
Home owning NIMBYs are self-serving, but you also get anti-gentrification renter NIMBYs who just shoot themselves in the foot by blocking new developments.
â@@krombopulos_michael agreed. The anti-gentrification people are afraid of being priced out by more affluent incomers. Makes sense. Where would they go if the suburbs are too expensive?
Gentrification and densification of suburbs affect each other.
In Europe, rich people are in the city center, while poor are in the edges. Economics seem to dictate that it be so.
Rich suburbanites and poor urban residents will have a difficult time with transition. More so the poor who are sandwiched by hostile suburbs and gentrifiers.
Low income housing usually comes with more crime. Why would any homeowner want more crime in their neighborhood?
@@johnmartin4641 Is it right to hinder the free market from delivering more housing so that a few can keep the neighborhood to themselves?
Especially in land they donât own, with infrastructure and services maintained by the city?
The crime here is that suburbs want exclusivity of a gated community at government expense.
@@Basta11 they do own the land though. Thatâs what makes them homeowners. They own the land. Single family zoning doesnât prevent people from owning homes. People who want to be homeowners donât want to live with other families anyway. Thatâs the whole point in owning a home. This video focuses on horror stories from the Bay Area, but the typical home only cost $350,000. Thatâs very affordable. You donât even have to come anywhere close to making 6 figures. The politicians know if they let crime come to these neighborhoods, the homeowners will vote them out or move, which would decrease their tax revenues.
Never expected my own high school and middle school to show up in a Vox video. Especially when they're rightfully calling out the local opposition to build affordable housing for teachers in San Jose.
Parents sometimes make bad decisions. Treating teachers like that has been a terrible decision, I'm sorry to hear that. I live in Europe, and most areas of my city are within 1km of a high school or a primary school. I walk and use public transport a lot, and my parents hardly have to drive for everyday stuff.
There is too much money to make by keeping supply low and demand high.
Yea that's the kind of short sighted thinking that lead to the 2008 recession
I don't believe the supply data, and someone should break that down. Leading up to 08, that bubble was created by too much supply and unsustainable prices. So the question is, after further supply was released after the crash, and a ton of people went to foreclosure, how much supply was there for the 3 to 4 year period, before we got back into a sellers market. Sure, we built less homes, but I distinctly remember that reports were we didn't have to build more housing.
What happen to all the excess supply after the crash? The reason we hadn't built, was because something/someone gobbled up what was left.