# The way to address housing affordability is to build more housing **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 12, 2025, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-way-to-address-housing-affordability-is-to-build-more-housing/1024808 "2025-11-12T17:43:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2025, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-way-to-address-housing-affordability-is-to-build-more-housing/1024808/21 "2025-11-12T20:25:57Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > I own my home after paying off the mortgage last year, and the house has appreciated nicely since we moved here 25 years ago. If we stay here long enough, it’s value will figure into our old-age care - I don’t want the value of _MY_ house to go down! If we want to solve the housing crunch, the price of your house has to go down. In the battle to make homes more affordable, you are the adversary, and your preferences must be overridden. I don’t intend to be hostile about it, it’s not your fault for following the conventional wisdom for building wealth. But it was a mistake for America to make home ownership the linchpin of retirement, because it incentivizes incumbent homeowners like you (and me) to pull up the rope after we’ve clawed our way to financial security. That’s not right, and it’s not sustainable. Just for transparency, decreasing housing prices would also knock a dent in my retirement as well. But I’m raising 2 teenagers, and I have a stake in good outcomes for them and their generation. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2025, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-way-to-address-housing-affordability-is-to-build-more-housing/1024808/22 "2025-11-12T20:54:45Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Mortgages are a market like anything else. If housing is tight and housing prices are rising, larger mortgages will be in demand, and banks will be able to charge more for them. What happened after the bubble in 2008? Mortgages were going begging, and mortgage rates dropped But even to this day, you need a good FICO score to qualify. > [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > I’d like to mention a pet hobbyhorse of mine, pre-fab modular housing, That is the way to go! Everyone I know that has done mod housing love it and say they are more durable than traditional stick built. > [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > Lower prices mean smaller mortgages, which means risky borrowers will be more able to afford the risk premium. Convince lenders of that. What led to the 2008 housing issue, banks selling off their mortgages as financial instruments. As late as 5 years ago (and maybe it is still going on) they are still doing that. It is not that the bank is lending you money and collecting their 6.5% on it. They are selling off the mortgages and if the buyers say “We won’t buy any loans to people with lower than a 660 FICO.” then banks are not going to give a mortgage to anyone with a 659 or lower. > [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > People build homes and then move into them. Is it worth it for companies to buy and build lots then sell them without houses? I thought all of their profit was to build a cheap-ass house for $150,000 and sell it with the lot for $450,000. And what if I want to live in the city that have few if any vacant lots? > [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > If we want to solve the housing crunch, the price of your house has to go down. That is simply not true. Historically you get cheaper houses by going further from the urban center. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2025, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-way-to-address-housing-affordability-is-to-build-more-housing/1024808/23 "2025-11-12T21:19:20Z")
One way to stop investors is to liberally apply homestead property tax exemptions. Set property taxes at some outrageous rate that discourages investors and offer homeowners the homestead exemption (declaring the owner as the primary resident) to bring the rate back to a reasonable level. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2025, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-way-to-address-housing-affordability-is-to-build-more-housing/1024808/24 "2025-11-12T21:24:13Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > Increasing supply is a trickier one. The nuclear option is to take away local control of zoning. Suburbanites don’t want a 200 unit apartment building down the block? Too bad, somebody wants to build one, you’re getting one. It’s not just about “suburbanites”, or even zoning. [https://padailypost.com/2025/07/05/new-law-makes-it-harder-to-stop-construction-of-apartment-buildings/](https://padailypost.com/2025/07/05/new-law-makes-it-harder-to-stop-construction-of-apartment-buildings/) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2025, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-way-to-address-housing-affordability-is-to-build-more-housing/1024808/25 "2025-11-12T21:30:05Z")
Problem with that is it also locks people into their own homes. If I and my neighbor live in near identical houses we ought to be able to trade them without ether or both of us having our assessment reset to undo 20 years of homestead exemption rate caps. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2025, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-way-to-address-housing-affordability-is-to-build-more-housing/1024808/26 "2025-11-12T21:37:06Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Is it worth it for companies to buy and build lots then sell them without houses? I thought all of their profit was to build a cheap-ass house for $150,000 and sell it with the lot for $450,000. And what if I want to live in the city that have few if any vacant lots? Then as you said: > [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Historically you get cheaper houses by going further from the urban center. Financial incentives only go so far. Not everyone will get to live in their first choice of location. I’d love to live in San Diego but it’s not happening. If the housing crunch gets solved by cutting prices, my equity will decrease, there’s simply no way around it. There’s no policy that can give a pony and ice cream cone to everyone who wants it. I’m talking about systemic financial incentives that, in the aggregate, will reduce prices across the board, which is a precondition to affordability. > [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > We won’t buy any loans to people with lower than a 660 FICO.” then banks are not going to give a mortgage to anyone with a 659 or lower. I don’t see low FICO borrowers as a priority to be fixed. They took out loans, they didn’t meet their obligations of repayment, and they got a poor credit score that prevents them from borrowing. That’s just how credit works, and they can fix their own problem by opening high-interest, low-limit credit cards and paying back on time for a few years. If they can’t manage that, they have no business trying to get a mortgage, and should remain renters. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2025, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-way-to-address-housing-affordability-is-to-build-more-housing/1024808/27 "2025-11-12T21:50:13Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > They took out loans, they didn’t meet their obligations of repayment, and they got a poor credit score that prevents them from borrowing. Most negative hits on Americans’ credit scores is from medical debt. Also low is relative. I can finance a car with a FICO much lower than buying a house. > [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > I’m talking about systemic financial incentives that, in the aggregate, will reduce prices across the board, which is a precondition to affordability. I get that but there is more to it than “build cheap houses and they will come”. Saving down payments. Current minimums on credit scores for loans. Ensuring there is a priority for people buying their first home. Property taxes in some jurisdictions. ---
**Author:** ![DeadTreasSecretaries](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deadtreassecretaries/32/4817_2.png) [@DeadTreasSecretaries](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadTreasSecretaries)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2025, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-way-to-address-housing-affordability-is-to-build-more-housing/1024808/28 "2025-11-12T22:25:01Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Convince lenders of that. What led to the 2008 housing issue, banks selling off their mortgages as financial instruments. As late as 5 years ago (and maybe it is still going on) they are still doing that. It is not that the bank is lending you money and collecting their 6.5% on it. They are selling off the mortgages and if the buyers say “We won’t buy any loans to people with lower than a 660 FICO.” then banks are not going to give a mortgage to anyone with a 659 or lower. The problem was that those financial instruments were backed by mortgages to people who couldn’t afford them. The solution to people who can’t afford a mortgage now not being able to get one is to make rent cheaper, which happens if there are more rental units as a result of more investor-owned properties for renters to choose from. Coercing banks into offering mortgages to people who don’t have good enough credit is a recipe for another 2008. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2025, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-way-to-address-housing-affordability-is-to-build-more-housing/1024808/29 "2025-11-12T22:29:09Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > In the battle to make homes more affordable, you are the adversary, and your preferences must be overridden. Yeah, it’s sorta funny my mid-20s son has said the same thing to us more or less regarding the situation…”_You guys_ are the problem here!!” ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2025, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-way-to-address-housing-affordability-is-to-build-more-housing/1024808/30 "2025-11-12T22:34:12Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > According to a study I read, most housing is bought by rich investors to use as income property. Add to that that someone with a FICO under 640 has almost no hope at getting approved for a loan and someone under 580 has absolutely no no hope at getting approved for a loan and simply building more housing is not sufficient to make it affordable or doable for those that need the help. A quick Google suggested that about 20% to 30% of single family homes are owned by investors. And most of those are individual investors (like my wife and I renting out our old condo) compared to about 2% institutional investors (private equity, hedge funds, or banks). ---
**Author:** ![DeadTreasSecretaries](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deadtreassecretaries/32/4817_2.png) [@DeadTreasSecretaries](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadTreasSecretaries)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2025, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-way-to-address-housing-affordability-is-to-build-more-housing/1024808/31 "2025-11-12T22:34:20Z")
Fundamentally, yes. There is no way to isolate different aspects of the housing market. Your housing values can’t go up while investor-owned homes go down and new home buyers we like can’t get cheap homes while investors buying homes get expensive homes. We’re all in the same market. You can mess around the margins with taxes or other incentives (which already happens in the US) but that’s all you can do. And if you did that to the extent it would prevent investor ownership, it would result in a combination of people just committing fraud and people figuring out how a big investor can invest in the mom-and-pop landlord without technically having to own the property. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2025, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-way-to-address-housing-affordability-is-to-build-more-housing/1024808/32 "2025-11-12T22:51:07Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Convince lenders of that. What led to the 2008 housing issue, banks selling off their mortgages as financial instruments. As late as 5 years ago (and maybe it is still going on) they are still doing that. It is not that the bank is lending you money and collecting their 6.5% on it. They are selling off the mortgages and if the buyers say “We won’t buy any loans to people with lower than a 660 FICO.” then banks are not going to give a mortgage to anyone with a 659 or lower. Not exactly. What led to the 2008 housing issue was extensive sub-prime mortgage lending - Issuing lots of mortgages to people with low credit scores who couldn’t afford to pay them back. The lenders sold off their mortgages as a type of Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDO) or Collateralized Mortgage Obligation (CMO) called a Residential Mortgage-backed Securities (RMBS). Banks like Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns and insurer AIG bought and traded these CDOs that were highly rated because they were so “diversified”, thinking that the price of homes never goes down and people always pay off their mortgages. Well people did stop paying their mortgages and home prices went down, leading to these companies holding a lot of worthless debt. My wife does all that structured finance shit. She’s super busy and I’m unemployed (technology/management consultant) so that’s historically a good sign we’re heading into recession. It means Wall Street is investing a shitton of money in weird esoteric financial instruments but otherwise not spending money on infrastructure or other projects (outside of AI). ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2025, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-way-to-address-housing-affordability-is-to-build-more-housing/1024808/33 "2025-11-12T23:00:22Z")
> [@DeadTreasSecretaries](#): > > The way to make housing more affordable is to increase the supply of homes that someone wants to live in. Whether you build more luxury condos, McMansions, section 8 apartments or anything in between, increasing the supply of any housing makes it easier for everyone to afford housing. Yes, this is just basic economics. > [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > According to a study I read, most housing is bought by rich investors to use as income property. The solution to this is to build more housing. > [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Add to that that someone with a FICO under 640 has almost no hope at getting approved for a loan and someone under 580 has absolutely no no hope at getting approved for a loan The lower the price of housing is the smaller of a loan people will need and the more they could afford to put down as a percent of the price of the house, thus making home ownership more attainable. > [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > simply building more housing is not sufficient to make it affordable or doable for those that need the help. Additionally you are conflating housing being affordable with home ownership being affordable. Building more housing will help both, of course, but even for people too low income to buy a home, a decrease in the cost of housing would be beneficial as it would impact rent, too. The minimum price rent can sustainably be is slightly more than the total cost of home ownership (mortgage, insurance, etc) after all. > [@DeadTreasSecretaries](#): > > The rental market has the same dynamic. If more properties exist, and more investors buy them and rent them out, the renters have a higher supply of rental housing and as a result can get lower rents. Yes, of course, this is correct. > [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > I do not think rental prices follow basic supply and demand like that. …what do you think determines rental price, then? > [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > But even if you are right, shouldn’t it be a goal to have the middle-class getting equity from home-ownership and not rich landlords? Yes, we should; building more housing helps the middle class afford home ownership, _and_ it helps the lower class afford rent. Does it also help some rich developers get richer? Sure. Are we so determined not to allow this to happen that we are willing to sacrifice all the benefits lower and middle class people can gain from more housing, just to spite the rich? That seems silly and counterproductive at best. > [@kenobi\_65](#): > > > [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > > > I do not think rental prices follow basic supply and demand like that. > > At least, in recent years, they certainly haven’t. > > The chart in this article shows that, for the past five years, average rent has going up by 5 to 7% annually. Yes, general inflation has been up in the past few years, but rental rates are outstripping that. …can you please explain how exactly the chart in the article proves that rental markets aren’t controlled by supply and demand? Yes, rent outstripped inflation. That’s because the demand for rentals has been growing faster than the supply. If they were growing at the same rate, then the cost of rentals would grow at roughly the same rate as inflation. And if the supply of housing outstripped the demand, the price would grow slower than inflation, or even fall. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2025, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-way-to-address-housing-affordability-is-to-build-more-housing/1024808/34 "2025-11-12T23:06:03Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > People are talking about bringing housing prices down. But, I own my home after paying off the mortgage last year, and the house has appreciated nicely since we moved here 25 years ago. If we stay here long enough, it’s value will figure into our old-age care - I don’t want the value of _MY_ house to go down! When people want the price of housing to go down, what are they referring to, exactly - new homes? Yes, if a bunch of new homes are built (or if a big highrise is built down the street from you), the value of your home will go down, as will the cost of rentals and new homes in the area. That’s the point. Yep, it will hurt existing homeowners. That’s part of why this is an intractable problem; no one with political power actually wants to see it done. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2025, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-way-to-address-housing-affordability-is-to-build-more-housing/1024808/35 "2025-11-12T23:07:18Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > …can you please explain how exactly the chart in the article proves that rental markets aren’t controlled by supply and demand? Point taken. I was mostly trying to show that rents have risen dramatically in recent years, outpacing inflation by a fair amount. Is that because demand is higher than supply? Certainly possible. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2025, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-way-to-address-housing-affordability-is-to-build-more-housing/1024808/36 "2025-11-12T23:07:35Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Again, assumes facts not in evidence. If the going rental rate in my area is $1500/mo, then that’s what I’m charging whether the house itself cost $100,000 or $500,000 The going rental rate in your area (for a given home, obviously a studio apartment rents for a different price than a two bedroom townhouse) isn’t an arbitrary value though; it’s based on a lot of factors, including the value of the home and the cost of a mortgage. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2025, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-way-to-address-housing-affordability-is-to-build-more-housing/1024808/37 "2025-11-12T23:45:46Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > Yep, it will hurt existing homeowners. That’s part of why this is an intractable problem; no one with political power actually wants to see it done. Yeah, well, the new, affordable housing can be built, then, in the next town over. /s ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2025, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-way-to-address-housing-affordability-is-to-build-more-housing/1024808/38 "2025-11-13T00:01:12Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > Yeah, well, the new, affordable housing can be built, then, in the next town over. /s. Do you mean to say it can be built but Not In ~~My~~ your Back Yard? ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2025, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-way-to-address-housing-affordability-is-to-build-more-housing/1024808/39 "2025-11-13T00:09:13Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > The supply/demand relationship is a fact. Increased housing supply puts downward pressure on both rents and prices. It can’t be any other way. The supply/demand relationship is a fact - but that doesn’t always mean that increasing the supply will bring the price down or even slow the increases. Sometimes it will just mean that people from out of the area can move in. You could put a million new housing units in NYC and it wouldn’t have much of an effect on house prices or rent. People would just move to NYC unless the new apartments/houses were so expensive that people wouldn’t pay that much to live in that neighborhood. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > If I and my neighbor live in near identical houses we ought to be able to trade them without ether or both of us having our assessment reset to undo 20 years of homestead exemption rate caps. I don’t think a homestead exemption has to involve caps - you could let the property taxes go up and just give any owner/occupied property a large exemption. which would stay in effect when a new owner moves in. For example, property taxes are $10K but if the house is occupied by the owner there’s a $5K exemption.. House gets sold , new owner moves in, new owner gets $5K exemption. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2025, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-way-to-address-housing-affordability-is-to-build-more-housing/1024808/40 "2025-11-13T00:21:47Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > Yeah, it’s sorta funny my mid-20s son has said the same thing to us more or less regarding the situation…”_You guys_ are the problem here!!” I’m always amazed when I hear people complain about how their kids can’t afford to “stay in the neighborhood”. Somehow, when I ask them if they will sell their house/rent an apartment below market so their neighbor’s kids can stay in the neighborhood , they never say yes. They don’t want large apartment buildings built in their neighborhood.They don’t see that people selling their house for 4 times what they paid for it and fighting apartment buildings are the reason their kids can’t afford to live where they grew up. I wouldn’t be thrilled to have my house lose half its value overnight- but I also know my house is worth more than 4 times what I paid for it - and the job I had them only pays twice as much as it did then. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-way-to-address-housing-affordability-is-to-build-more-housing/1024808.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-way-to-address-housing-affordability-is-to-build-more-housing/1024808.md?page=3)