Ask HN: Why doesn't tech community push for solving the housing shortage?

5 points·TheTrotters··3 comments

I'm talking about California.

The problem affects almost everyone, from large companies through start ups all the way to employees. Existing homeowners get enormous rents at the expense of everyone else. The solution is also very simple -- relax the zoning laws and issue many more permits for new construction.

So why isn't there a huge push to solve this problem?

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One way of looking at it is: If rents are lower, property values are lower. If property values are lower, mortgage loans become less collateralized or possibly upside down. If mortgage loans go upside down, banks go under.

Another way of looking at it is that technology can't readily create real-estate (with exceptions of dredging coastal areas). The way technology can address high rents is via improved communication and transportation to allow work to be dispersed. Tech is all over that.

Anyway, changing zoning laws is not a matter of tech. It's a matter of politics. Which means it's a matter of money and will.

Rent is pretty cheap in Temecula. It's just not cheap where you want to live. Same problem in Atlanta, New York, and Chicago, though it may vary by manageable degrees. Dallas is mostly immune to this phenomenon.

The solution is called remote working.

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