Don’t you have this backwards? People want to live in the bay because it has high salaries education etc, so the housing market is competitive. Everyone wants to live there
Yes. There is a supply problem hindered by politics. But even if all the construction in the world happens, would you be able to buy a 3 bedroom house in SF for 400k? Not a chance. Everyone wants it.
A 3 bedroom townhome in Seattle (actually Redmond WA, more expensive!) when I graduated was 350k, and that was already an inflated housing bubble price. My starting salary was 85k at Microsoft.
If 20k people move to a city each year and the city only approves 10k new buildings, the city is sabotaging its own growth.
Saying "we don't want growth!" doesn't work. Prices shoot up, wages increase, cost of living goes up, the price of everything goes up, eventually it becomes unsustainable and the entire economy crashes.
If 20k people want to move to a city, built 25k housing units. Keep it simple.
Expedite permits, hire more inspectors, simplify building codes, do whatever is needed to ensure people have a place to live.
I am also pro growth but it doesn’t change that many people want to live there. You say only 20k people move there, but isn’t the pricing keeping out many more who would otherwise like to live there?
