The real cost of suburbia has been aggressively hidden for decades and is only now becoming realized as even gen-Z buyers with college degrees are getting priced out of starter suburban homes.
The solution is to aggressively tear down draconian zoning laws that force businesses to build obscenely large parking lots and forbid mixed-used developments. More American-style suburban homes with 2 yards, a 2 car garage, and 3 bedrooms is not going to help with prices at all, in fact, it's likely to make the housing crisis in every country worse. The rent itself is not the only cost but the utilities as well. When you build another 100 spread out homes in suburbia, even if the city subsidizes the cost of all that piping, wiring, drainage, and asphalt, it comes back to you in the form of tax or cuts to amenities like parks, museums, and other public goods. Suburbia isn't "cheaper" than the city, it just shifts the cost from rent/mortgage elsewhere.
This isn't just abstract wish-listing by the way. It's real policy proposal that has been tested, and demonstrated to work.
Comments
The real cost of suburbia has been aggressively hidden for decades and is only now becoming realized as even gen-Z buyers with college degrees are getting priced out of starter suburban homes.
The solution is to aggressively tear down draconian zoning laws that force businesses to build obscenely large parking lots and forbid mixed-used developments. More American-style suburban homes with 2 yards, a 2 car garage, and 3 bedrooms is not going to help with prices at all, in fact, it's likely to make the housing crisis in every country worse. The rent itself is not the only cost but the utilities as well. When you build another 100 spread out homes in suburbia, even if the city subsidizes the cost of all that piping, wiring, drainage, and asphalt, it comes back to you in the form of tax or cuts to amenities like parks, museums, and other public goods. Suburbia isn't "cheaper" than the city, it just shifts the cost from rent/mortgage elsewhere.
This isn't just abstract wish-listing by the way. It's real policy proposal that has been tested, and demonstrated to work.
https://www.planning.org/planning/2022/spring/a-business-cas...