Affordable Housing

KC topics that don't fit anywhere else.
User avatar
beautyfromashes
One Park Place
One Park Place
Posts: 7138
Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2005 11:04 am

Re: Affordable Housing

Post by beautyfromashes »

^ Thanks for your thoughtful response. I agree with most all of it. The working class are those who will take the biggest hit, because the percentage increase in their cost of living is proportionally higher. The $100 or $200 increase in their housing cost will be devastating. Yet, we aren’t focusing our housing policies on this band of the population, either by price support or increase in job availability. We focus on suppressing the top band and claim it’s in the name of affordability. The greatest effort I’ve seen in this city to help with affordability doesn’t even come from government. The tiny house village for veterans is a true effort to fight housing prices. Forcing down pricing for condos does nothing for the blue collar worker you mention. It’s more a social experiment to get a different clientele on DT streets. That might be beneficial, but it has no basis for helping anyone. Cut the incentive by an equal amount to the rent ceiling established in those units and no one is worse or better off, surely not the low wage worker you talk about. The best thing the city can do for that worker/nonworker is attract better/more employment. This has been slow going in recent decades and I don’t see much of an emphasis for it in current mayoral politics either.
flyingember
Mark Twain Tower
Mark Twain Tower
Posts: 9862
Joined: Tue Jul 17, 2012 7:54 am

Re: Affordable Housing

Post by flyingember »

beautyfromashes wrote: Sat Feb 09, 2019 9:56 am Forcing down pricing for condos does nothing for the blue collar worker you mention.
Except that it can. There’s a caveat at the end.

All my numbers will be the cost or renting or buying to make the math easier. I’m going to go in easy $100 increments not because that’s strictly real, but for an easier progression.

Let’s say that there’s an excess of units on the market at $2000 per month either because too many were built or there’s incentives to keep prices down and people who can afford this have their pick of units. So they can’t all be filled easily.

Some units with a value of $2k will price themselves at $1900 per month. But what does this mean for existing units worth this price? They’re now less desirable at that rate.

So some of them drop to $1800 per month.

And so on down the line.

Some apartments will not be renovated as often simply because there’s too many high end units and will naturally drop in price quicker as well.

When this doesn’t work is when the market can easily absorb the extra units at $2000 per month and only the top end is driven down in price. This is why we want the excess construction.

Seattle saw a huge number of units built, a 30% increase in one year, and rates dropped in 2018. San Francisco didn’t and cost of housing have skyrocketed.
User avatar
beautyfromashes
One Park Place
One Park Place
Posts: 7138
Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2005 11:04 am

Re: Affordable Housing

Post by beautyfromashes »

Increasing the supply overall does decrease the price of all units as a whole IF it doesn’t also increase demand. In your scenario, decreased pricing for DT luxury units would likely pull in more middle class residents from the suburbs instead of rolling price increases back all the way to lower income levels.
User avatar
FangKC
City Hall
City Hall
Posts: 18132
Joined: Sat Jul 26, 2003 10:02 pm
Location: Old Northeast -- Indian Mound

Re: Affordable Housing

Post by FangKC »

Another point that needs to be made is rental prices went up after the 2008 economic crisis. Many people lost their homes, and were forced back into the rental market. This increased demand for lower-priced units. Many of those people are still living in rental housing. They might have been laid off, and have never achieved former salary levels in their next job. Additionally, those who kept jobs often had flat incomes, and didn't get any raises for several years.

The other factor after the crash of 2008 is that there was little demand for new homes, so few to none were built for several years. The population kept growing though. There were several years that housing growth didn't keep up with population growth. We lost several years of adding new housing units to the market.

Since so few new homes were built for years after 2008, the existing housing market was hotter. People had to buy older homes that were renovated, and had maybe previously been rental houses. The upper end luxury market wasn't there, so people who were earning a higher income were competing for existing homes instead of buying a new home on the suburban edge. This also put more pressure on the rental house market. There were then fewer rental homes, and competition for them drove up prices.

I see this on the Old Northeast Facebook page. People are desperate to find rental housing when their lease is up, or when their family has expanded. It's the lower-priced units that are hard to find. This is because in the past 10 years, people were buying rental houses and renovating them to live in themselves or to sell to other resident buyers. It's been good for the neighborhoods to have homeowners instead of renters, but it creates a problem for young people starting out, and low-income residents.

When the housing market recovered, it was the luxury housing market that came back first. We are still struggling to create housing for the middle, and lower income residents.
User avatar
beautyfromashes
One Park Place
One Park Place
Posts: 7138
Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2005 11:04 am

Re: Affordable Housing

Post by beautyfromashes »

^ Yes, and the reason people haven’t been buying in this generation is because they carried huge college debt, mistakenly thinking that every dollar put into education would pay off no matter the degree or field. The Federal Reserve bank also artificially kept interest rates low, creating a disincentive for saving money and having it for a down payment. The decade of decadence (80s) came to roost. Let interest rates continue to rise giving real benefit to those disciplined enough to save and promote smart spending on college.
herrfrank
Western Auto Lofts
Western Auto Lofts
Posts: 634
Joined: Wed Aug 21, 2013 2:12 pm

Re: Affordable Housing

Post by herrfrank »

Luxury housing turns into middle class housing with the passage of time. Miami is Exhibit A in this regard. High rises go up all the time, and the hot new high rises with whatever luxury is de rigueur at that moment, attract the new money from South America. Then five years pass, and these same people relocate to newer high rises. Middle class people move into the vacated, formerly luxury units. The five-year-old and older high rises slide down the affordability range. This is a healthy marketplace.

An unhealthy marketplace doesn't build anything at all because the incentives (aka money) to the builders do not justify the investment. People move out of town to find the supply and the price point they desire.
User avatar
FangKC
City Hall
City Hall
Posts: 18132
Joined: Sat Jul 26, 2003 10:02 pm
Location: Old Northeast -- Indian Mound

Re: Affordable Housing

Post by FangKC »

Fed up with poor living conditions and abusive landlords, KC Tenants advocates for better affordable housing in Kansas City


https://www.thepitchkc.com/news/article ... ansas-city
User avatar
beautyfromashes
One Park Place
One Park Place
Posts: 7138
Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2005 11:04 am

Re: Affordable Housing

Post by beautyfromashes »

So, if I’m a landlord and I start to worry about not being able to evict tenants that don’t pay, threats of rent control in the future, increased city regulation inspections, or being sued by a tenant advocacy board; guess what I’m going to do....
User avatar
grovester
Oak Tower
Oak Tower
Posts: 4553
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2008 7:30 pm
Location: KC Metro

Re: Affordable Housing

Post by grovester »

Sell your property?
User avatar
beautyfromashes
One Park Place
One Park Place
Posts: 7138
Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2005 11:04 am

Re: Affordable Housing

Post by beautyfromashes »

grovester wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2019 10:45 am Sell your property?
Perhaps. And what affect do you think that would have on people wanting to rent and the affordability of units?
User avatar
smh
Supporter
Posts: 4297
Joined: Tue Jun 08, 2010 10:40 pm
Location: Central Loop

Re: Affordable Housing

Post by smh »

beautyfromashes wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2019 11:10 am
grovester wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2019 10:45 am Sell your property?
Perhaps. And what affect do you think that would have on people wanting to rent and the affordability of units?
Increase the desirability of the property because it is no longer owned by a slumlord?

I kid i kid.
User avatar
FangKC
City Hall
City Hall
Posts: 18132
Joined: Sat Jul 26, 2003 10:02 pm
Location: Old Northeast -- Indian Mound

Re: Affordable Housing

Post by FangKC »

KC committee hopes to ease parking requirements to spur affordable housing
A City Council committee on Wednesday endorsed a potentially transformative plan to ease parking requirements for developers who build some affordable apartments.

The proposal, which the full City Council could vote on as soon as next week, is the latest in a series of measures it has considered since starting work last year on Kansas City’s first-ever long-range housing plan.

“It’s a first for Kansas City,” said Councilman Quinton Lucas, a candidate for mayor and chair of the Housing Committee, said of the parking ordinance. “We have addressed parking and density requirements near the streetcar line. I think this allows us to do it more thoroughly throughout the entire city.”

The ordinance the committee passed Wednesday would allow developers to provide just one parking spot per two apartments as long as they set aside 20 percent of the units in a new building for those making 70 percent of the area median income or less, which equates to rents under $850 per month.
...
https://www.kansascity.com/news/politic ... =twt_staff
User avatar
chaglang
Bryant Building
Bryant Building
Posts: 4132
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2012 12:44 pm

Re: Affordable Housing

Post by chaglang »

Good lord, finally.
flyingember
Mark Twain Tower
Mark Twain Tower
Posts: 9862
Joined: Tue Jul 17, 2012 7:54 am

Re: Affordable Housing

Post by flyingember »

chaglang wrote: Thu Apr 11, 2019 6:27 am Good lord, finally.
Good movement to be fair, but not far enough. Should allow less parking for all development, even market rate. Let a developer decide what's appropriate as a minimum.
User avatar
DaveKCMO
Ambassador
Posts: 20024
Joined: Sun Nov 27, 2005 6:22 pm
Location: Crossroads
Contact:

Re: Affordable Housing

Post by DaveKCMO »

May I introduce to you Baby Kansas City, the Baby City that just takes Baby Steps?

Step 1: Eliminate parking minimums within 500 feet of mass transit stops
Step 2: Exempt small Crossroads businesses (<5,000sft) from full parking requirements
Step 3: Eliminate parking minimums in the downtown loop
Step 4: Eliminate parking minimums in the Brookside shops
Step 5: Eliminate parking minimums for portions of the Crossroads and River Market
Step 6: Eliminate new, non-accessory surface parking in some overlays
Step 7: Reduce parking minimums for developers receiving incentives that build affordable housing units

I suspect Step 8 will be some other incremental step that's done in response to something else (just like all of the above).
User avatar
KCPowercat
Ambassador
Posts: 33735
Joined: Mon Oct 07, 2002 12:49 pm
Location: Quality Hill
Contact:

Re: Affordable Housing

Post by KCPowercat »

We like our parking minimum changes like we like our bike lanes. Baby steps.
User avatar
chaglang
Bryant Building
Bryant Building
Posts: 4132
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2012 12:44 pm

Re: Affordable Housing

Post by chaglang »

Gotta boil that parking frog somehow!
User avatar
FangKC
City Hall
City Hall
Posts: 18132
Joined: Sat Jul 26, 2003 10:02 pm
Location: Old Northeast -- Indian Mound

Re: Affordable Housing

Post by FangKC »

How about reducing parking minimums for retail centers where many of the parking spaces are never used? There are many opportunities to create affordable housing near and around existing grocery stores, and shopping malls. This would allow seniors, disabled, and low-income residents to live near retail centers. For many people, the only reason they require a car is to do shopping. If more housing is centered around shopping needs, and services, more residents can live car-free. Getting rid of those expenses immediately makes life more affordable.
User avatar
chaglang
Bryant Building
Bryant Building
Posts: 4132
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2012 12:44 pm

Re: Affordable Housing

Post by chaglang »

Absolutely. That’s a situation where parking maximums may be useful, to keep grocery stores from oversizing their lots to account for day-before-Thanksgiving levels of traffic.
shinatoo
Ambassador
Posts: 7386
Joined: Wed Jan 19, 2005 3:20 pm

Re: Affordable Housing

Post by shinatoo »

KCPowercat wrote: Thu Apr 11, 2019 5:42 pm We like our parking minimum changes like we like our bike lanes. Baby steps.
Incoherent and disconnected?
Post Reply