
Why Housing Policy Feels Like Generational Warfare - clumsysmurf
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/06/why-millennials-cant-afford-buy-house/591532/
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mdorazio
tl;dr: It feels like generational warfare because it is.

If you're not lucky in the job / skills market and don't have family willing
to lend you money, housing prices in desirable metro areas are so out of
control that there's a good chance you'll never be able to afford to buy one
without making big sacrifices to save way more than the average rate.

~~~
souprock
Those "desirable metro areas" were not always that way. In 1963, my grandma
spent $9000 to have a big house built on some undesirable empty hills that
were a good distance from downtown. It's the geographic center of San
Francisco.

Everybody wants to skip the "wait 56 years" step. Nobody seems to like
building a house on some undesirable hills away from downtown and then waiting
56 years. People are even pushing to degrade her peaceful neighborhood, the
one that exists because of people like her, with more crowding.

~~~
mdorazio
I'm not sure I agree with that because of one thing: commutes. How long was
your grandma's commute from her empty hill to the places she wanted to go 56
years ago? How long is a commute from some empty hill in the east bay to
downtown SF today? People would be really happy to move to some run-down
emptyish area if it didn't mean the tradeoff of 3+ hours a day wasted.

It's also important to note that 56 years ago economic opportunities tended to
be spread out a lot more than they are today, so it's a bit of an apples and
oranges comparison.

~~~
souprock
You'd commute the same distance, from your east bay empty hill to an east bay
downtown. Make it succeed, and make your neighborhood desirable.

In case that looks impossible, remember that SF itself was nothing special. It
was an industrial sort of place.

------
zepto
“Generational warfare?”

When the press feels like dangerous propaganda...

