Can’t have much of a housing crisis convo without discussing rent. I’ll go first. I live in a small suburb of Kc. No real growth for 20+ years.
Friend of mine had a house fire during Covid and had to rent a house in my town while his was being rebuilt. He needed min 3 bedrooms and there were only 2 on the market, both at 3br. Both are in slight disrepair(for example he couldn’t use the deck on the one he eventually rented due to it being unsafe). He went with the slightly less expensive one for $3,500/month.
Houses in this town that were $110k 5yrs ago are going in the low to mid $200’s now.
One of the issues in my town is that one local builder owns nearly all the undeveloped land and is developing one neighborhood at a time. I say that loosely, because he hasn’t started the next phase and the neighborhood has been full for about 2-3yr.
The material pricing craziness harmed prices, and affected house costs and rents, but the lack of skilled labor is even more so the problem around here. I am currently hiring at my company and indeed.com is filthy with out of work carpenters who have been making $90-$110/yr for the last 3-4 yrs.
In my town, I don’t think zoning will help.
To expand to discussing the region, I think one of the best things that could be done would be regulating so that homes can’t be purchased by investment groups. Maybe a law that you can’t own more than a 2-3 houses.
