Re: City and municipal zoning and laws.
From: Brian Bartholomew (bartholomew.brianyahoo.com)
Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2019 12:59:09 -0800 (PST)
Dean,

Please consider taking a wider view, and survey laws which affect
approaches other than the usual dense suburban look for $400K/unit.

For instance, will the local development-plan-approver allow less
expensive developments which depress existing housing resale prices by
creating competing alternatives?

There are many approaches to construction which can build
incrementally over 10-20 years with less loans:

        State park-ish style with centralized bathroom, laundry,
        kitchen.  Bare lots with electricity and telco but not fresh
        water or sewer yet.

        Trailer park style with yucky old trailers; with RVs; with
        brand new LEED Katrina cottages.

        Suburban neighborhood style with water and sewer buried under
        road, but cheaper roads: dirt or limerock instead of pavement,
        no storm drains, sidewalks, streetlights, curbs.

These housing styles may not be your preference.  However, some people
need a cheaper approach, as cost of living is being inflated from 7%
to 13%.  These numbers are calculated from price tags of common items:

        http://www.chapwoodindex.com/

> At the state or federal level, why not seek to have government loan
> guarantees for cohousing?

As we've seen with university tuition, if you make a broad government
guarantee of loans then institutions will raise prices to consume
those guarantee amounts.  The cost to the consumer will grow much
faster than even the rest of the cost of living is being grown.  To
really make it unaffordable, make the debts non-dischargable in
bankruptcy like student loans are.  Then there's even less risk to the
lenders, and the loans which are poorly justified by future earnings
potential will be even bigger.

Obviously, a government program which taxes money from an upper-middle
class person and gives it back to them as a housing subsidy has
produced no wealth.  Instead, it has consumed wealth to administrate
that program.  A mechanism like Kickstarter is far more democratic, as
the opinions about what results would be a net wealth increase are
being made by every person who pays in, not just legislators.

Brian

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