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Comment by ryuker16 | Hacker News Reader

This is bad but much more significant is restrictive zoning laws.

I live in downtown chicago where rents are reasonable and skyscrapers for living at everywhere.

Meanwhile, you gotta move heaven and earth to build high density housing in some cities like SF. Even suburbs will fight 4 story apartment buildings. It's not rocket science.

Let the foreigners invest in building more of them. When the crash happens, the locals get to buy them back on the cheap.

What shouldn't happen is foreigners investing in sitting stock as a bank to store funds....zoning laws are like NIMBY on steroids with a long history of racism and classicism.

That's what really is what we should be angry about.

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These are the same issue. If housing is regulated as a commodity then there will be plenty for consumers and prices will tend to be low and stable. If housing is regulated as a premium product with limited supplies and implicit links to schools and other critical resources then available units will dwindle, prices will rise without rational bounds, and we see the rise of people without homes along with homes without people.

At least in downtown areas, Seattle is infamous for having some of the least restrictive zoning laws in the country. I was advised not to pay any premium for a condo with a nice view, for example, because there is almost no such thing as a "protected view" in the city, unless you're physically situated such that no theoretical future building project could obstruct it.

While this might be accurate of downtown, you've lost the forest for the trees. Seattle absolutely has protected views for many of the single family houses. If they expire, it's on 30-40 year time horizons. Most of the city's land is single family housing (often with large minimum lot size).

If you want to know what Seattle is actually infamous for: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_process

Do you have a reference for "reasonable" rents in Chicago or can you break that down at all?

I'm genuinely curious. Coming from Vancouver where rents compared to salaries are considered beyond insane, what I found on Chicago's craigslist seem to be comparable. That is, accounting for exchange rate but not salaries.

Rent prices in Chicago are half of SF, according to crowdsourced data from Numbeo's cost of living calculator.

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?cou...

Oh okay. Ya that sounds about given what I've heard and what other commenters have said about SF.

I had found 1 room shared by bunkbed airbnb's for ~$1500/mo in SF, in a shitty location but forget where specifically about a year ago; and that was pretty cheap for near the heart, afaict

$1900/mo got me a 2-story townhouse in chicago just south of the south loop; maybe 15 min by train to the heart of the city, 20 min walk to chinatown

Had 3 proper bedrooms and an attic, so with 3 roomates it was more like $450/mo

Funny, I had an airbnb(I hosted) in nashville's downtown that made that rate look dirt cheap.

Reason?

Outdated zoning laws and hotels were slow to catch up with the tourist industry.

It was crazy watching my nearby competitors(the major hotels) adjust prices like the stock market.....

$1800 a night for the last suite at the sheraton up from $250-500 normally. Bonoroo and Country Music festival held the same week is what I called "Second christmas".

Why did you sell or stop hosting?

I moved.... Plus the hotels caught up as did the housing shortage.

2 massive hotels went up downtown and another third is coming online soon.

Sank my new years and March madness profits.... It was a good run.

That's insane.

I meant compared to San Francisco and New York.

Then again, canadian salaries are lower and exchange rates are a factor.

Ok that makes sense from what I've heard. Have spent a small amount of time in Chicago and generally like the place.

Chicago is also shrinking in population. Supply and demand and all that.

Most of that is the poorer side. Due to violence in poorer neighborhoods, less blue collar work, and ironically higher rents in some poorer "hip" neighborhoods.

Many high rises under construction here....they aren't building them for tax breaks.

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