
Don’t Blame Tech Bros for the Housing Crisis - mistersquid
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/30/opinion/sunday/housing-crisis-silicon-valley.html
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altano
I really don’t understand any of these articles about the housing crisis in
California. They always have points that seem intuitively completely wrong.
For example:

> That property is zoned as industrial, so if it shifts to residential use,
> which generates limited property taxes, San Jose stands to lose tax revenue.

Even with Prop 13, give the soaring sale prices of new homes, all
municipalities in the Bay Area have been experiencing explosive growth in tax
revenue over the last 40 years. This makes it sound like they’re struggling to
maintain revenue which is crazy.

The town I live in, Redwood City, has had its taxable base increase from $13B
to $23B in the last 10 years without having to provide ANYTHING new. There has
been no major civil engineering projects, no increase in public
transportation, absolutely nothing reasonable to pour that money into.

Bay Area taxes are a scam and these towns are flush in so much fucking cash
they should be drowning. I don’t get it.

~~~
imtringued
I don't see how this violates intuition.

The decisions to not build more residential housing and instead have more
commercial development weren't made today. They were made decades ago back
when home prices and tax revenues were not so high. You cannot just will high
taxes into existence. People need an income source that allows these high
taxes in the first place. The bay area heavily favored commercial development
at the expense of residential development. The end result is that the Bay Area
has a lot of high income jobs and those high income jobs need a home and the
people holding these jobs are willing to pay more than anyone else.

Because of policy decisions a lot of medium income people are grandfathered
into low property taxes and have an incentive to keep their house and sell it
to someone with a high income. If the city now suddenly started building more
housing as a response to the housing crisis then property owners would have to
compete with new construction and see their home value shrink.

By the way. If opposing construction was really about preserving the character
of the neighborhood then property owners would have been equally opposed to
new commercial construction because the new influx of money is guaranteed to
change the character of the neighborhood.

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jseliger
It's refreshing to see some knowledge of supply and demand being shown
regarding the housing market in a mainstream forum: "The spiraling housing
costs in West Coast tech hubs are the result of 40 years of tax and land use
policy."

------
api
I look at it as producers vs rentiers. Major cities are controlled by price
fixing supply restricting frontier cartels. Producers of art, culture, etc.
have already been priced out of cities like SF. The tech people are the only
ones left who can afford the rent, but they will be driven out too.

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Nasrudith
My first thought was "it took them that long to realize this?!". Really with
housing there is a history of absolute selfishness even to their own detriment
across all economic and social strata.

Then again "tech bro" itself is a shibboleth of tribalism and ignorance in
itself. As a community like all it has many things to criticize of varying
legitimacy objectively and subjectively. Instead it is like the Greco-Roman
"Barbarian" \- an outgroup term broad to the point or uselessness.

------
westurner
If there is demand for housing, we would expect people to be finding land and
building housing unless there are policies that prevent this (and/or long
commutes that people don't want to suffer) or higher-value opportunities.

If the city wanted residential areas (over commercial tax revenue giants), the
city should have zoned residential.

The people elect city leaders. The people all want affordable housing.

With $4.5b from corporations and nowhere to build but out or up, high rise
residential is the most likely outcome. (Which is typical for dense urban
areas that have prioritized and attracted corporate tax revenue over
affordable housing)

... Effing scooter bros with their scooters and their gold rush money and
their tiny houses.

[Edit: more than] One company says "I will pay you $10,000 to leave the Bay
Area / Silicon Valley" Because there's a lot of tech talent (because
universities and opportunities) but ridiculously high expenses.

What an effectual headline from NY.

