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<div dir="ltr">THANK YOU Kirk ............. </div><div><br clear="none"></div><div><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Lawrence is a bedroom community which are known for high tax dollar rates. Also these bedroom communities are not known for high skilled labor that wil be reliable employess as in long term .........need higher wages to keep this type of labor demand in tact.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Is Lawrtence over retailed and/or flooded with empty roof-tops?</div>
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On Wednesday, December 4, 2024, 03:06:40 PM CST, Sheri Ellenbecker via Electronic-LAN <electronic-lan@lists.ku.edu> wrote:
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<div dir="ltr">Thanks. That is very enlightening data that you’ve shared. Some incomplete thoughts that I have had are that often a family has two houses because the family is not one unit. Does that count as two household then? Another thing that has been
in the back of my mind is that there is no incentive for the builder to build a moderately priced home. They make a lot more money on more expensive homes I think. so the little slab ranchers that we rented when we were first married are no longer being built.
The bedrooms were small. The bathrooms were small and they had an eaten kitchen. That served us nicely then it seems like those are not even being built now as single-family dwellings. And I do believe that most people want to have a single family dwelling
as opposed to an apartment when they have a family. Maybe that is something that is no longer possible in America. But I think in small town America like Lawrence Kansas that is what people want. Am I right in that? I think that if there was a way for the
city to offer an incentive to build these types of homes , maybe more people could afford them. Also, there’s another way to look at this and that would be to raise wages. </div>
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<blockquote type="cite">On Dec 4, 2024, at 2:58 PM, McClure, Kirk via Electronic-LAN <electronic-lan@lists.ku.edu> wrote:<br clear="none">
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<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;">LAN members,</span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;">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.</span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;">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.
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<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;">Some quick facts from the Census, the most reliable source of population and housing data:</span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;"> <i>Item 2000 2020 Change Percent Change</i></span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;"> Population 80,083 94,934 14,851 19%</span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;"> Housing Units 32,792 43,421 10,629 32%</span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;"> Households 31,435 39,688 8,253 26%</span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;">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.</span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;">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. </span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;">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.</span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;">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).
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<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;">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.</span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;">I hope that this helps.</span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;">All the best,</span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;">Kirk </span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><b> </b></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><b>Kirk McClure</b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;">, Ph.D.</span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;">Professor Emeritus</span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;">Urban Planning Program</span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;">University of Kansas</span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:mcclure@ku.edu" target="_blank" href="mailto:mcclure@ku.edu"><span style="color:#467886;">mcclure@ku.edu</span></a></span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;"> </span></p>
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<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;"> Electronic-LAN <electronic-lan-bounces@lists.ku.edu>
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Gary Webber via Electronic-LAN<br clear="none">
<b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, December 4, 2024 12:23 PM<br clear="none">
<b>To:</b> ELECTRONIC-LAN <electronic-lan@lists.ku.edu><br clear="none">
<b>Subject:</b> [Electronic-LAN] Vox.com: The pro-housing consensus that wasn’t</span></p>
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<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"> </p>
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<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" target="_blank" href="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%7Cbdd3c4a1244c4c57caae08dd157740b4%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638690324131359987%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=sTYtQsQwwzNNdqD92X%2FPgg%2F2gsLfWDIr4ww%2BqKZhD5o%3D&reserved=0" originalSrc="https://www.vox.com/policy/389431/housing-affordable-homes-yimby-nimby-shortage-construction" shash="pj8jWBd0XFxDq5D1yOyWyEfwTdHg9XhUaR8wvE90twCzUTQl48GYkb00KJua3SZatq0vW/pcccJuaP/hP+iJz5hZC0SL+J4/ySu+CjCrt4AhnqiKhza+JEJV3p43uQze2ZGJLIRI7zOP0sqqCnkhU90cNfgI3YAyGz09ACVwvpU=">https://www.vox.com/policy/389431/housing-affordable-homes-yimby-nimby-shortage-construction</a> </p>
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<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal">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.</p>
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<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal">Gary Webber</p>
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<p class="yiv3536942615MsoNormal"> </p>
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