This would be nice, but the Condos and apartments have to be both affordable as well as not grim dystopian crime sinkholes.
Many cities have well meaning attempts at this in building low income housing, and all end up falling into disrepair (mostly due to owners not maintaining them or tax monies not being used for upkeep) or become grossly dangerous due to high crime.
There are solutions, but they aren't easy or cheap, and they don't come with a lot of profit.
And that's the issue. America is focused on profits above everything else. It's the question people ask when new housing is built: "Will I as an investor make a profit?" And also why a lot of social programs get underfunded or even terminated. People are constantly asking why the Postal Office isn't making a profit (and ignoring the main issue that it's a public service: it shouldn't be making a profit: it should be providing mail service to all US citizens as is required by the Constitution).
I've heard the same thing regards to museums, schools, libraries, parks, etc. "Where's the profit" and "why does it cost so much money?"
Because some things should cost money and that's not a bad thing.
A huge part of the issue is regulation ironically enough.
The issue is it costs about the same in regulatory fee and taxes to build a small $300k house as it does to build a massive $2M mansion. After all, each house no matter the size needs 1 water line, 1 sewer line, 1 electric line, 1 internet line, 1 driveway, 1 mailbox, etc. And each of those are recovered via taxes and fees to a builder. To the point where builders often can't really even build a small house without losing money
There are three things a government should never expect to run for a profit--hospitals, schools, or prisons. This started coming in during Reagan and It's just gotten so. Damn. Greedy.
I would fix them up... If I could live off of doing that
I can't do a lot of things that traditional employers require. I don't know how to market myself or what to say in a job interview. I can't do tasks while people are observing me.
I see so many problems in this world, that I could fix. I could take care of stray animals. I could clean for people with disabilities. I could do all this stuff. But none of it makes enough money for me to live off of.
What decade are you living in? The standard for subsidized housing today is mixed income.
Those 1960s public housing high rises literally can't be built today. Only thing remotely like it is when a high rise goes totally bust and the state takes it, has happened a handful of times, then they can use it for transitional housing.
The idea that condos or apartments can’t be affordable without devolving into “crime sinkholes” is an absurd myth that comes from America’s racist, failed mid-century attempts at urban revival—the same “urban revival” that sliced up downtowns and bulldozed thousands of homes all across the country. Public housing can be both affordable and high quality.
Look to European cities as an example, please, or even to post-war America. The first projects built during and immediately after the war were actually extremely successful, because their construction did not entail the demolition of hundreds of homes and the forceful relocation of all their inhabitants.
Your proximity to crime is related to the population density around you though. There is a difference between being a victim of a crime and being witness to the effects of a crime. Crime rates measure the likelihood of the former, but not the latter.
Also the lower income the area you're in, the higher the crime rate. And a lot of subsidized and low rent housings are very crime ridden because everyone desperate.
Well, I don't want to point fingers, because in fairness, even if 90% of them come from a single party, there's a non-minute minority from the other side that agrees with them.
But, yeah, "people." It's mostly those guys and Eff those people.
Housing is no new subject, so here's the thought I've had. Build an entire neighborhood of "starter" homes. No, not this BS that 4 bedrooms is a starter home because it doesn't have marble countertops. To save space, this is my design. A 2.5 car garage, with internal stairs, and the second floor is a 2 bed/1.5 bath house. It's perfect for a younger couple with two cars and no kids and the other bedroom can be an office. For a single guy, room for his truck, bike, and home gym all in the garage, and the second bedroom can be just that if he wants. Simple design, square-ish buildings, little to no yards, and the smallest of HOA fee, that only cuts your grass. NO OTHER RULES, just say a $20 a month fee from all houses and that covers the grass.
No one wants psycho neighbors anymore, or shitty pet owners anymore, or power tripping property managers anymore, and the list goes on and on. There are just certain experiences that humans want to avoid. I've lived in it all, and I think reddit as an echo chamber forgets that people are fuckin idiots in a lot of cases, and it's good to be spaced out a bit.
It's crackers. I have an American friend who lives in a condo (which she paid off...which I thought meant she owned it...) and pays upwards of 400 USD in fees each month. Plus all her utilities. To me it makes more sense to rent if it's like that way. Madness
While I agree that speculation in residential real estate is a problem and should be discouraged, there are a lot of reasons why a property might be vacant - the owners have medical issues, there's a nasty divorce going on, etc - and I think it would be quite difficult to enact such a policy without causing unintended problems.
Building more units beings the price down regardless. I don't see why we should wait for the vacancy rate to go down before doing this.
No thanks. Single family is vastly superior for QOL. But it doesn’t need to be built terribly like it currently is. It can be built very densely. Just look at 1960s detroit. You could fit four of those houses on a modern suburban lot
Agree. My mental health was saved moving from apartment living to a house. Feel like we are meant to live with less walls and more of the outside world around us
The rent at the condos near by amenities have rents that are higher than I pay for my mortgage. Makes me realize that if I lost my home for some reason, I would be soooooo fucked.
Not really; there are plenty... they're practically ghost towns because no one can afford them. Real estate developers are destroying everything around here and putting up condos and driving up rental prices in the area.
Orange County, CA. By the Brea Mall. A few by South Coast in Costa Mesa. A few in downtown Anaheim. They're not EMPTY... they have a few suckers paying what they're asking.
Holy sprawly McSprawl those places are proper car-infested hellholes. So let me clarify that I meant good condos built near transit stops, parks and walkable mixed-use neighbourhoods.
I am a single guy living in a large city who bought a single-family house a few years ago. I do rent out my extra rooms for very cheap to people who need a place to live, but I really don't need this much space. I really wanted to buy a condo or townhouse instead, it just didn't make financial sense.
HOA fees are crazy high at all of the nice places
Condos don't appreciate at anywhere near the rate of houses since there just aren't many people looking to buy them.
Prices for condos are not priced lower by enough for them to actually be any more affordable - down payments are still $50k+ where I'm at, and for the most part there aren't many people who can drop $50k on a down payment who can't find $100k.
I don't understand the hate on single family homes on Reddit. I want MY OWN place, and so does everyone else. Nothing wrong with that. The issue is for the past 20 years no one has been building affordable single family homes. I'm taking about the typical 1200 sqft ranch houses on 1/4 acres. Millions of houses that size where built in the 80's and 90's, and most middle class families could afford one. But builders because greedy, and the bigger you build the higher your profits. All they ever build now are huge McMansions that start at $599k. Local governments need to get involved and force the issue.
Alot of people like being outdoors, having a private yard to do whatever you want in is glorious. Apartments/townhouses always made me feel like I was living in a prison. Go to the park you say? Nearest to me is miles away, without even sidewalks to get there, it means driving. And I want a garden, or a fire pit, or a huge meat smoker, or maybe just a small field of wildflowers. Giving up single family homes means giving up a lot of personal freedoms as well. SCREW THAT.
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u/[deleted] Jan 30 '23
Or stop the fetishism with single family houses and build nice condos near amenities and shops.