Hacker News Reader

Comment by miguelazo | Hacker News Reader

>But where does the unaffrodability come from?

Hmm, maybe the type of housing being built.

Again, absolute BS. No better example of this than LA. The type of new housing being built is small condos. Previously affordable housing is becoming unaffordable. That's not because of new units, that's because of a shortage.

Crappy little homes all over the city spiral up in price. Meanwhile a small number of apartments and condos are built downtown, and people publish fake studies about how there are vacancies, and the studies have to be retracted within days.

Everybody focuses on the new as if that's causing the problem, rather than seeing that there's massive massive overcrowding everywhere, lower income people are commuting massive distances, and what used to be working class neighborhoods have homes selling at prices that require household incomes of more than $500k/year.

The problem is a massive shortage. (And massive corruption in the permitting process, how many LA pols are facing felonies now because of denying housing so that they can take bribes to let a few things through?)

LA is indeed a great example. Your YIMBY laws at the state level are being used to override local zoning to build McMansions in the highest fire risk areas like the San Gabriel Valley foothills, along with bulldozing existing rent-controlled affordable housing near transit to build more luxury condos. And yes, just take a drive into DTLA any night of the week and see the vacancies for yourself: 2/3 of the luxury condo units are dark, night after night after night. Good luck getting data from the parasitic real estate sector for a proper study. Those condos are bank accounts for foreign money laundering, which is probably why FINCEN recently announced that they're going to finally crack down on it.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-set-unveil-long-awaited-...

The best part of your response was this though: >how many LA pols are facing felonies now because of denying housing so that they can take bribes to let a few things through?

Huizar is the poster boy for this and he was taking bribes from the worst luxury condo developers of them all to build in downtown, razing the existing affordable rentals. Not to mention he went along with literally every big housing project that came his way for Boyle Heights (Vegas hotel/strippers/poker chips included or not), as detailed in "The Sellout".

I agree with you that there's a shortage, but the conversion of housing into a speculative commodity is a much bigger problem than a lack of construction, which is why there are well over 5 million vacant homes in this country (that we know of). AirBnB, Wall Street hedge funds purchasing single family homes, get rich quick flippers, are all driving the affordability problem.

https://therealdeal.com/national/2023/10/08/millions-of-home...

Please do just a bit of thinking about vacancy. The idea that anyone would purposely let a unit they own sit empty for 10 years is ridiculous, and doesn't happen.

We need vacant units so people can move around. I guess in your perfect world there is 0% vacancy? Please, tell me, how would anyone move to a new city in that world?

yeah....

Also, rent control doesn't work. It never has. And never will.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com