We really need a recession/crash to reset the housing market, otherwise we're going to end up with a bunch of oligarchs owning all the properties while the millennial populace will be on the streets
It is not as simple as supply and demand. There is a huge profit motive as all that controls supply and the type of supply. It is one thing to build studio apartments but do we need "luxury" studio apartments for a 50% premium?
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=luxury+...
Since housing is a need people will pay what they have to. So the supply and demand chart is skewed. Also, that demand also includes people who demand two houses. And an artificially low supply, well who does that benefit?
If there was enough supply built housing prices would crash. How do you think people who view their houses as an investment feel about that?
people do not need to be evicted when the economy crashes. That as a choice in 2008 that Bush and Obama made. They bailed out the banks instead of the people. But the solution is deeper than that as well. There is no way out, and people with more money then you will have it all and you will have nothing, that is how this all works.
If this happens, then the people who currently can't afford housing will be turbofucked, while the people with the expensive housing will be, at worse, just fine, or at best, will profit greatly from it.
The GFC was not that long ago. And it minted so many millionaires that everyone is keeping an eye out for prices to drop because they want to replicate that same success. Lightning will not strike like that again because everyone is standing around that spot with metal rods held high in the air. There's no end of people waiting for "the next housing crash" to buy.
If you want cheaper housing, then you want more housing to be built. And you want the housing to be high density. Which means you're going to stepping on a lot of innocent people, and enriching a lot bad people to get them built. We're probably talking about using eminent domain to seize single family homes, and handing the land over to some developers (at a discount) to raze them and build large condos in their place. Because, fact is, nobody wants to give up their single family home that's been appreciating at double digit rates for the past 20 years with no end in sight. You're going to have to pry it from them.
You might need some plumbing for a second kitchen, installing a new front door, or perhaps putting up a wall or two.
> Because, fact is, nobody wants to give up their single family home that's been appreciating
Critically this solution would be a win-win for a lot of existing homeowners.
There's a lot of people at retirement age whose kids have left the nest who'd happily go for turning their house into a duplex, but the bureaucracy isn't giving them that option.
They might not want to "move", but would happily give up half their living space for extra retirement money.
There's a lot of ways to dramatically increase the housing supply practically overnight.
lol my landlord is actually planning to do that with the house I'm living in after we move out, whenever we decide to do that.
Of course you can also destroy existing houses and re-build, or build new houses, but then you're back to the GP's point that that will often take time. Repurposing existing buildings can often be done very quickly.
You'll also get "new housing" that you'd never get without it, even if you had sufficient money. E.g. my example of an older couple that might keep their house for life, and would never consider moving, but they might consider accepting a tenant in their (mostly unused) basement or large garage.
Interestingly e.g. California seems to have made this legal in 2021[2], but I'm not sure about the specifics there. In jurisdictions I know about it's often de-facto illegal, because other building code often mandates such extensive modifications as to make it impossible. E.g. insisting that each address has its own dedicated entrance into the building.
E.g. where I'm from (Iceland) some older houses are set up as duplexes where there's a single entrance, and a small area shared by both houses, usually to hang your coats, store your shoes and other outwear, and very usefully a shared laundry room (a single family's laundry facilities are rarely used all the time). Such setups have since been made illegal for new housing by zoning regulations.
There's been similar moves towards "one size fits all" zoning in most or all other western countries. E.g. in New York it used to be common for younger people or new immigrant families to live in housing where several families might share kitchen facilities or other common areas. I.e. essentially being set up as collage dorms. That's since been made illegal for any "real" housing, which has resulted in driving up the price of housing, and pricing some people out of the market entirely.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-family_zoning 2. https://www.californiacitynews.org/2021/09/california-says-g...