What other cities are doing about affordable housing

[FangKC]

The following metro areas have experienced the greatest increase in rent prices year over year.

Kansas City, MO (+16.17 percent)
Oklahoma City, OK (+9.31 percent)
Memphis, TN-MS-AR (+8.16 percent)
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI (+8.14 percent)
Providence-Warwick, RI-MA (+7.97 percent)
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA (+7.38 percent)
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA (+6.42 percent)
Columbus, OH (+5.08 percent)
Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI (+4.74 percent)
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC (+4.30 percent)

https://www.rent.com/research/average-r ... ce-report/

[maison rustique]

Any theories on why rent is so out of control here?

[im2kull]

Any theories on why rent is so out of control here?

It's not. It's also not rocket science to figure out why there has been a massive increase.

Technology has pushed the world to be closer together than ever. KC was a historically cheap market due to purely regional attraction. Now it's collecting residents from across the world. Their views of what is "Affordable" are prices much higher than what KC had in the past. Thus, the new bar is set. Thank you new residents and technology for levelling the world out more.

[FangKC]

Multi-family housing development has not kept up with demand nationwide since the real estate meltdown of 2008. A lot of developers got creamed in that crisis and went out of business, so there are fewer experienced developers and builders in the market and they haven't been replaced. That is part of the reason prices are so high. What is being built is more expensive because prices for materials and labor are also more expensive.

[FangKC]

The YIMBYs are coming

Inside the fight to build more housing and bring down home prices

...
After years of being outnumbered in local meetings, YIMBYs began using the same local organizing tactics that NIMBYs pioneered, Trauss said. Pro-building advocates have become famous for their impassioned feuds with opponents on Twitter and in community meetings. They're electing pro-housing lawmakers at every level and pushing them to pass YIMBY policies.

"You go to these public hearings that maybe were once exclusively dominated by people who are opposing anything and everything," Gray said, "and now you have a few people show up saying, 'Hey, actually, I'm a young professional who wants to be able to stay in the city where I'm from,' or 'I'm a retiree who wants to be able to downsize,' or 'I'm somebody who's experienced homelessness,' and it totally changes the tenor of those conversations and it provides planning conditions and city councils cover to do the right things."
...
In 2018, Minneapolis became the first city to ban single-family zoning. The state of Oregon followed soon after. In Austin, the city council recently passed a set of upzoning measures that include reducing the city's minimum lot size — which would allow at least three homes on a single lot — and policymakers in Dallas are pushing for a similar policy. Seattle homeowners built 1,000 ADUs last year, more than the total single-family homes constructed. After Portland, Oregon, passed reforms that allowed for more ADUs, construction of the units increased by 34%, according to the Cato Institute. Some cities where ADUs are growing in popularity, like Denver, have recently eased restrictions, too.
...

https://www.businessinsider.com/yimbys- ... reddit.com

[beautyfromashes]

Any theories on why rent is so out of control here?

Because it’s been depressed for over 50 years. Just starting to see the city turn and demand starting to build. It rightfully should increase and still is probably less than suburban rent in the metro.