New Developments = More Affordable Housing

[Devin James]

If you want more affordable housing, attend city commission meetings and advocate for approving new developments. More units = more options :).

Its supply and demand. Every time we build a new home, we add more supply to the market.

As supply increases, demand decreases, which can eventually lead to lower prices if done on a large enough scale.

Unfortunately, many people outside our industry don’t fully understand this.

There's a misconception that builders are price gouging, but in reality, the price of a home is directly tied to the cost of building it.

When material or financing costs go up, home prices follow. And when demand is high, the product goes to the highest bidder.

Companies don’t just pull prices out of thin air—everything is strategically calculated.

[Andrew W.]

What are you referring to when you say more affordable housing?  Your first comment regarding attending city commission meetings seems to indicate that you are referring to affordable housing under state statues (i.e income and other federal/state restrictions).  Your comment about building more houses/increasing supply to make housing more affordable seems to indicate that you are referring to simply increasing supply to lower prices.  These are obviously very different things.  Creating more true affordable housing isn’t really something that you can tell your local planning and zoning.  Affordable housing is not something that they have any say in, as it is regulated by the particular state.  Local planning and zoning can generally not change that.  A planning and zoning commission can generally not turn down a development with affordable housing that meets all of the state and local requirements.  In fact I think it is more common that developers will increase the % of affordable housing allowing them to circumvent the local planning and zoning commission in their approval process.  Also, I think people generally want less affordable housing in their towns, not more.  I could be wrong, but it certainly true in my experience in the cities/towns that I have lived in.

[Devin James]

Quote from @Andrew W.:

What are you referring to when you say more affordable housing?  Your first comment regarding attending city commission meetings seems to indicate that you are referring to affordable housing under state statues (i.e income and other federal/state restrictions).  Your comment about building more houses/increasing supply to make housing more affordable seems to indicate that you are referring to simply increasing supply to lower prices.  These are obviously very different things.  Creating more true affordable housing isn’t really something that you can tell your local planning and zoning.  Affordable housing is not something that they have any say in, as it is regulated by the particular state.  Local planning and zoning can generally not change that.  A planning and zoning commission can generally not turn down a development with affordable housing that meets all of the state and local requirements.  In fact I think it is more common that developers will increase the % of affordable housing allowing them to circumvent the local planning and zoning commission in their approval process.  Also, I think people generally want less affordable housing in their towns, not more.  I could be wrong, but it certainly true in my experience in the cities/towns that I have lived in.

 Hey Andrew,

Thanks for the reply, I should have been clearer.

When I say affordable housing Im referring to generally making homes more affordable, nothing to do with the legal concept of affordable housing. 

In our city commission meetings, there are a ton of people (neighbors of proposed developments) advocating against new developments. And most City Commissions that we deal with always ask us to build less units. This country is severely under supplied in housing units so more units will better help affordability by adding more supply to the market.

I tried to make it as simple as I could but I can see how it got confusing. 

The message is, we need more housing supply to lower demand which will hopefully lower pricing and make housing more affordable. To get more demand, we need more projects and units approved. To get more projects and units approved, we need more people advocating for more developments and more units, rather than less.