Build your way to affordable housing? > Rexroad.com

Dan Weintraub is one of the best columnists around. I read his stuff almost every day.

On Sunday he went off on the City of Davis and their land use policies. While I am never above taking some good shots at our Inter-Galactic Sister City to the south I think one important point is missing -- we can't build ourselves to affordable housing in California without sacrificing every other public policy principle.

Say Davis and/or Woodland added 10,000 homes next year. What would the price of the homes be? Would it be dramatically less than the prices we have now in these communities. I don't think so.

Could the infrastructure for transportation handle it well? Could our public safety service keep up with the demand? Could the air quality remain at current levels? Could our water supply continue to keep up with demand without a further decline in quality? Could quality schools continue to operate? With a huge influx of people all at once I think the answer to all these questions is no.

If this were the case wouldn't home prices be dropping in some of the faster growing regions of the state like Elk Grove, Brentwood, Riverside County, and Placer County? They are all growing very quickly yet the prices at least remain stable or actually continue to climb.

If the Davis City Council decided to add Oste Ranch and Covell Village to the General Plan would the housing prices drop enough to bring a mortgage down from $4,000 per month to $2,000 per month so that someone with a good job would be able to afford it? Again, I don't think so.

My view is that housing is a regional commodity. People are willing to move in order to get the best value. If the cost of housing rises in Davis then it rises in Woodland too. It may not rise as much but it does go up.

End point for me -- you can't build your way to affordable housing in Yolo County.

Comments

By LandMan @ Tuesday, July 24, 2007 8:28 AM

In California there are many constraints to affordable housing including excessive government fees and the extortion freebies (which are costs all passed through to the ultimate consumer), inflated building materials, delays from legal challenges and the enormous processing time it takes to clear a project. And in Davis, you can go through the process and spend a ton of money on studies and consultants, and once you get through the planning gauntlet and your project is approved, then and only then, you get to be rejected at the ballot box under Measure J? So you have to wonder why would anyone take all that risk just to build affordable housing? There has to be an upside. And in Davis there can be enormous rewards if you gain entitlement. To the victor go the spoils. and that's to build homes with no competition. To truly have affordable housing in that environment you would have to also have some local competition. Having made that point, if you don't even have land identified in your general plan for the future then you have irresponsibly pulled up the ladder and said Dixon, West Sacramento and Woodland, you do the heavy lifting.

If Davis or any other community decided it wanted affordable housing it would just take a proactive approach and some builder incentives like reduced fees and we are there. But seriously, who really wants to do that? I've just bored myself. Next subject.

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