[Electronic-LAN] Vox.com: The pro-housing consensus that wasn’t

[McClure, Kirk]

LAN members,

I just want to chime in on the affordable housing issue.  As a former member of LAN from Old West Lawrence, I continue to follow the good work of the association.  I also am a retired professor of urban planning who specializes in affordable housing.

The books mentioned in the Vox.com article are all noteworthy, but they probably are not the best research available in the area of affordable housing.  The authors of these books all come to the field of housing with limited knowledge of how housing markets behave, and these authors have a great many predispositions.  All are predisposed to think that the price of housing is high because the supply is scarce.  In many good and services, this may be true; it is not true in housing.  Careful examination of the data show that there is no shortage of housing in nearly all of the 916 metropolitan areas of the nation, including Lawrence.

Some quick facts from the Census, the most reliable source of population and housing data:

                Item                      2000                     2020                     Change                Percent Change
                Population         80,083                 94,934                 14,851                 19%
                Housing Units  32,792                 43,421                 10,629                 32%
                Households      31,435                 39,688                   8,253                 26%

Housing growth outpaced both population and household formation.  Thus, there is no housing shortage in Lawrence.  But prices are high here as they are throughout the nation.

Prices are high for reasons other than scarcity.  Our building codes demand that housing be built to high standards which increases prices.   Our capital gains tax laws favor investment in owner-occupied homes making homes the single largest component of household net worth which contributes to upward pressure on prices.  As a household’s largest investment, homeowners protect their investments with zoning codes that exclude lower-priced homes contributing to upward pressure on home prices.  Supply chain problems, labor problems and high interest rates have contributed to recent increases in the costs of building new units which also contribute to upward pressure on prices.  The upward trend in prices outpaces the growth of incomes, especially for poor households who tend to be renters.

The housing affordability problems of Lawrence (and nearly all metropolitan markets in the nation) result from low incomes and a housing market that cannot produce housing affordably priced for the low-income households.  What this means is that we cannot build our way out of the housing affordability problem.  Adding large quantities of housing units will not lower housing prices.

We can help to resolve housing affordability problems with rental assistance (Housing Choice Vouchers) and low-income homebuyer assistance (downpayment assistance and below-market interest rate loans).

There are exceptions.  Special needs households and the homeless have problems that are best addressed by building housing that fits their special needs.  However, for the vast majority of the population, the market has already built the housing that is needed; we need to help the poor pay for the housing that already exists.

I hope that this helps.

All the best,
Kirk


Kirk McClure, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Urban Planning Program
University of Kansas
mcclure at ku.edu<mailto:mcclure at ku.edu>


From: Electronic-LAN <electronic-lan-bounces at lists.ku.edu> On Behalf Of Gary Webber via Electronic-LAN
Sent: Wednesday, December 4, 2024 12:23 PM
To: ELECTRONIC-LAN <electronic-lan at lists.ku.edu>
Subject: [Electronic-LAN] Vox.com: The pro-housing consensus that wasn’t

https://www.vox.com/policy/389431/housing-affordable-homes-yimby-nimby-shortage-construction<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fpolicy%2F389431%2Fhousing-affordable-homes-yimby-nimby-shortage-construction&data=05%7C02%7Celectronic-lan%40lists.ku.edu%7C5f00b4361ebb4ae4759d08dd14a66c8b%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638689427197730834%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Bv9m3mHHOs4mQplSiynYfWbg8wls1E95RxlE7fD1IeM%3D&reserved=0>

I suggest reading this article from Vox (link above), which summarizes 3 new books on housing trends in the U.S. It provides an excellent review of the history of housing that got us where we are today, and the possible paths proposed to improve the situation.

Gary Webber

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