Re: Not always joking, it seems

Jette <bosslady@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> David Friedman wrote:
>> In article <nCYuj.10454$XI.7665@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
>>  Jette <bosslady@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>> A very good question.  Why do developers have to be FORCED (by law if 
>>> necessary) to provide "affordable housing" options?
>> 
>> Several possibilities, all of which might be true in different places:
>> 
>> 2. In some areas, it's effectively illegal because of zoning laws, 
>> building codes, and the like, which mandate a level of house that isn't

>> what you would consider affordable. That might be deliberate--one 
>> function of zoning laws is to keep poor people from living in places 
>> where the majority of the current residents don't want them as
neighbors.
>> 
> 
> Not applicable in the UK.  We don't have "zoning laws" and ALL houses 
> have to be built to "code".

If I read Wikipedia correctly, US zoning laws = UK town and country
planning. It's the legal framework that stops someone from, for instance,
putting a factory in the middle of a neighborhood or converting a house to
a nightclub without getting permission from some official agency. For
new residential construction (at least in this area) cities typically set
the type (multi- or single-unit) and density (units per acre) and (for
single-unit construction) the developer sets a minimum and (maybe) maximum
size for each unit via contract on the sale of the lot.

>> 3. Because new housing can't compete with old housing at the low end of

>> the market. Most of the American poor own cars--but I doubt many of
them 
>> bought the cars new. A large minority of the American poor own their
own 
>> houses--but I doubt many of them were bought new either.
>> 
> 
> My flat (apartment) cost 17.5K when we bought it 27 years ago.  It 
> would now cost 190K to buy the same flat in the same street.  Our 
> income hasn't gone up by the same ratio.  Technically we couldn't get 
> a mortgage to buy our own home, if we hadn't already paid off the 
> mortgage.
> 
> Oh and although it *looks* like we've made a huge profit, anything 
> more or less equivalent would cost us even more.

How much empty land is there nearby for new construction compared to the
change in population? Supply vs demand has a huge impact. Pricing of
existing housing in some places is held down by new development (adjusted
for condition, desirability of location, convenience, etc.)

	Robert
-- 
Robert K. Shull                           Email: rkshull at rosettacon dot
com