Idea for fixing the housing shortage

[HenryAlan]

That way if you must build a single family you still can

Nothing about a ban on single family zoning prevents construction of single family housing. It's not a ban on the form, it's a ban on a zoning requirement that mandates that form.

 

[kdmc]

Nothing about a ban on single family zoning prevents construction of single family housing. It's not a ban on the form, it's a ban on a zoning requirement that mandates that form.

The confusion around this is why housing advocates need to stop saying "ban single family zoning" and start saying "legalize multifamily housing" STAT.

 

[stick n move]

The confusion around this is why housing advocates need to stop saying "ban single family zoning" and start saying "legalize multifamily housing" STAT.

Now this is a great take! 1000%

 

[KCasiglio]

How tariffs on Canada will make new housing more expensive in New England - The Boston Globe

Much of the softwood lumber and mass timber that goes into apartment buildings in Massachusetts comes from Canada, as does fabricated steel and aluminum.

www.bostonglobe.com

Idea of how not to solve the housing crisis

 

[JeffDowntown]

Horrible news for affordable housing. The $1 Billion program to fund energy efficiency and climate resiliency retrofits for older affordable housing has been cancelled by DOGE. The program catalyzes about 10X additional in private investment -- and locks in affordable status for the retrofitted building for an additional 25 years.

Trump administration halts program that keeps aging affordable housing livable

The Associated Press has obtained a document showing that the Trump administration is halting a $1 billion program that helps preserve affordable housing

abcnews.go.com

 

[KCasiglio]

Empty nesters aren’t flying the coop - The Boston Globe

Banking on a “silver tsunami” of baby boomer homes to hit the market? You’ll be waiting a while.

www.bostonglobe.com

Baby boomers — those from age 58 to 76 — accounted for nearly 39 percent of the homeowner pool statewide in 2023, according to Redfin’s most recent data.

Nationwide, about 21 million homes are “empty nests” — those with at least three bedrooms and occupied by residents 55 and up with no children at home, according to Zillow. That has the potential to more than make up for the estimated 4.5 million unit national home shortage.

[...]

Baby boomers also are staying in their homes longer than ever, meaning you likely shouldn’t expect a sudden jolt of new supply: 40 percent of American baby boomers have lived in their current homes for at least 20 years, according to Redfin.

Redfin also noted empty-nest baby boomers owned 25 percent of large homes (those with at least three bedrooms) in Greater Boston in 2022 — compared to millennials with children owning just 12.5 percent of the supply.

What’s keeping these older homeowners parked in their current abodes rather than downsizing? Money talks, but the high cost of moving — especially when it pertains to higher mortgage rates compared to what they might have on their existing homes — has caused many to decide not to leave their longtime homes.

Seventy-eight percent of baby boomers nationally planned to age in place, an increasingly standard plan for older homeowners, according to Redfin.

[...]

In the local market, Zillow notes there are 281,773 empty nests, or about 14 percent of the local housing supply. That’s slightly less than the 16 percent national average of empty nests found coast to coast.

“Boston is a younger place, and there’s just not enough of these older homes available, even if all of them came on the market someday,” Divounguy said.

It’s not just empty nesters occupying larger homes that’s driving some of the supply shortage.

“Many baby boomers have had very prosperous careers, and that has led to many of them owning multiple properties, whether it be that they own a primary residence and secondary for vacationing, or perhaps a primary and then also in owning investment properties as part of their portfolio,” said Sarah Gustafson, president of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors. “With that, they’re taking up so much of that available inventory, it’s exacerbating the housing shortage that we’ve seen over the past couple of years.”