Study: Small Price Rise Hurts Housing Affordability
A lot of California legislators think just “one more small addition” to the cost of housing won’t matter. “After all,” they say housing in California is so expensive anyway that a modest new tariff “won’t be noticed.”
So, the added charge is routinely assigned to housing – presumably to appease some special interest, though it’s hard to imagine a group cheering more and more individuals being priced out of housing markets.
Now comes a study, commissioned by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), which shows those additional costs have consequences. The study says that for every $1,000 added the cost of a new home chases over 150,000 families from housing markets, nationwide.
In California, the state loses over 12,000 homebuyers for every $1,000 added to the cost of a home, according to the study. (An additional $1,000 – through offensive policies and regulations – is a no-brainer here in the state, by the way.)
What should this finding say to lawmakers? Especially those in California, where the median-priced home exceeds $700,000? Simple: added costs matter a lot so stop asking housing to do all sorts of new… Read More