Live in an adult dorm? Starcity thinks you would, for the right price [video]

In college, Mrs B's rooming house was about the best accommodations I had. She had 5 single rooms and 2 double rooms IIRC. It was $9/week for a single circa '65. Another $11/week for 20 meals at the eating club, and I only got food poisoning once.

I would pay $1-2k/mo to have the ability to stay in any major city in the world. I wouldn't even sell my condo. This would be an extra luxury.

In Boston there's a scarcity of 1-bedroom units relative to 3+ bedroom units - it's common for folks to live with a few roommates as the typical cost is ~1/2 of the 1-bedroom equivalent and generally easier to find.

I do see the potential of the idea. The next obvious step is to bundle it with office space. You could give a discount for every employee you move into the dorm below the office. It's easy to imagine a building with shops on the first floor, dorms in the middle, and offices at the top. You could live on a budget, never have to leave the building for work or food, have 0 commute, and some sense of community.

I think there's going to be a rising demographic of people that don't want to work and are willing to sacrifice having kids for an early retirement. This would be an excellent choice. I could have graduated college, put in a decade in a dorm above a software factory, have minimal expenses, and retire by 30-something.

Starcity's mission is to make great cities accessible to everyone. We're only a little over 3 years old but have made a lot of progress. Let me set the stage a little bit.

There is a sinister problem permeating great cities in the world — increasingly expensive housing costs, and it begins and ends with a lack of will. Politicians, developers, and banks are content with the status quo where economic growth and quality of life are bled out of residents by ever-increasing rents.

But it’s renters that suffer the most from this lack of will, and they’re being pushed further and further away from urban centers — away from culture, job opportunities, and easy access to amenities.

First, a few key facts to keep in mind:

- 7 million new renters enter the market to find housing every decade in the United States and spend $1.1T annually on apartment housing - Apartment living was the fastest-growing segment of the housing market over the last decade - 43% of apartment dwellers live in multi-family developments in urban settings, which translates to 35 million urban renters

Why are these facts important? Because, unfortunately for renters, inflation-adjusted rents have increased by 64% since 1960, while real incomes have not kept pace.

This pushes renters into stressful situations such as: 1. Commuting longer distances to areas where housing supply is less expensive 2. Moving into buildings that aim to fit more residents into the existing housing supply at a higher density and lower comfort 3. Apply to a lottery system for subsidized housing where the chances of getting affordable housing is similar to winning the lottery 4. Paying 50-60% of their income toward housing costs in an expensive modern high-rise 5. Playing craigslist sublease roulette where they don’t know what kinds of roommates they’ll get

Consumers want modern, on-demand, community-oriented housing products in urban settings, but housing supply isn’t able to keep up with demand, and hotels aren’t a viable long-term option.

Developers point to the inflexibility of banks and extensive regulation as reasons why 99% of new developments have the same format and little in the way of community. Regions like the San Francisco Bay Area and the boroughs of New York City would have to build supply at peak capacity for 50 years to create a meaningful reduction in costs for renters.

But, because of the lack of innovation by housing developers, there are only two methods of creating affordable housing:

A. Build expensive housing supply that becomes inexpensive over a significant time B. Subsidize expensive housing supply

This is where Starcity comes in. We’re building a new category of real estate called coliving. In fact, this built form has not been created before, so much so that we worked with San Jose to create a new coliving designation that's separate from hotel, dormitories, and housing (https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/multifamily/why-san-jos...).

Designed to make great cities accessible to anyone, Starcity offers its residents a comfortable living experience with a private, fully furnished bedroom, and private or shared bath, complemented by warm, inviting shared kitchens and living spaces. Our priority is to make it so that our residents feel like they’re part of a greater community from day one, while always feeling at home. We also don't waste space building hundreds of kitchens and living rooms that go virtually unused throughout a given week. The past methodologies are not sustainable and waste a tone of space.

We find underutilized multi-family, hotel, and commercial spaces or build ground-up developments to create coliving communities, adding to the city's housing stock without displacing a community’s longtime residents.

With community-building at its core, Starcity works with local community stakeholders, government agencies, and nonprofits to understand the communities we enter, offer volunteer and engagement opportunities to our residents, and attempt to become a source of energy and opportunity for the neighborhoods in which we offer housing.

The real estate industry and developers are focused on developing projects that create the highest return for investors, creating luxury units catering to high-income populations, which aren’t accessible to the average person looking to live or start their life in a city. Governments, on the other hand, are focused on supporting the lowest income individuals via subsidized housing. The result is that middle-income earners are the first to be squeezed out of cities.

And yet, so much research indicates that just being close to opportunity increases the likelihood of increasing your upward mobility (http://www.rajchetty.com/papers-categorized/#papers_opportun...).

We are just getting started, and hope that you bear with us as we get to our fully realized vision. Developments like 457 Minna (https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Co-living-tower-...) which breaks ground next year in San Francisco will allow someone on minimum wage to afford to live in a Class A property in the heart of the city.

Please feel free to AMA or reach out to me directly if you'd like to hear more about what we're working on.