Minimum-Lot-Size Regulations Limit Housing Supply in Texas

mercatus.org

17 points·jseliger··8 comments

On a related note, minimum parking requirements are hilariously bad (e.g. including gems like laws based on a trend line fudged between two data points):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUNXFHpUhu8

Texas is 6th in the US in housing construction per capita, and the top 6 metros for new housing construction include Dallas, Houston and Austin.

Sounds like new construction is inadequate in other metros as well, probably for different reasons.

This is how you get LA...

As well they should. A subdivision of 2000 square ft lots with 1900 square ft homes is an abomination.

Smaller lots should be laid out in a more grid-like pattern with local services. Aka a town or a city.

I'm personally at the interstice between "the government shouldn't have the right to mandate lot sizes, it creates artificial scarcity and puts a soft floor on property prices" and "tiny, congested lot clusters are really ugly, don't offer much more value than apartment living, and make a poor replacement for the woods bulldozed to make room for them, and could stand to be dis-incentivized".

Can you explain why you're between those, when you well know that without government intention the latter would, without question, occur?

It seems like the earlier is ideological in nature, whereas the latter is actually based on what you want reality to be like.

Sorry for the late response.

The short answer is because I don't like meddlers, especially not ones with legal authority.

Consider that perhaps I want to build my dream home, but my neighbors use the HOA or town council to try and keep me from doing what I want with my property because they think my preferred home style is ugly. In my mind it's the same principle as me wanting to block dense housing because I think it's ugly.

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