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0 pointsjeffbee5y ago0 comments

Meanwhile Minneapolis is handling their housing crisis much better than we are. They responded to rising housing prices by liberalizing their zoning code in the hopes of attracting more construction. Portland has done the same thing this year by legalizing the construction of multi-family dwellings on almost any parcel in town. This, of course, is also the secret to Houston's low cost of living.

California today is, for practical analytical purposes, a state with a fixed number of houses. This means we're currently operating in a regime where only the most successful and luckiest people can remain here. Unless we restart our housing production, this will continue.

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somethoughts5y ago

My take is that its because Texas at least has no natural barriers to contain sprawl, so its just sprawls outward as far as the eye can see. I suspect Minneapolis has similar geography.

Both Northern California and Southern California on the other hand have hills/mountain terrain which constrains suburban development.

rsync5y ago

"They responded to rising housing prices by liberalizing their zoning code in the hopes of attracting more construction."

Yes, that is what I was referring to when I spoke of an "anti-zoning housing movement". That is a political movement that, I believe, has its roots in California.

And yes, I agree with you that it has progressed further in Minneapolis than it has in, for instance, the Bay Area.

jeffbeeOP5y ago

I was both agreeing and disagreeing. In MN they have an "anti-zoning housing movement" but in CA we still have an "anti-housing zoning movement".

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