House Prices Are Falling and We Haven’t Solved the Problem of Restrictive Zoning |
CounterPunch Exclusives
CounterPunch Exclusives
House Prices Are Falling and We Haven’t Solved the Problem of Restrictive Zoning
House for sale, Morgantown, Indiana. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.
I happened to look at the Case-Shiller house price index, and I was struck by something that seems to be getting very little attention. It’s falling.
This is noteworthy because it seems the folks screaming about the need for zoning reform haven’t noticed. As readers may recall, a couple of weeks ago I had a little fun with New York Times columnist Binyamin Appelbaum (who is generally very insightful) because he thought he found the secret to curing the housing problem.
The remedy was in Vancouver, British Columbia, where an indigenous tribe had won a settlement that gave them control over a parcel of land in the city. Under the terms of the settlement, the tribe would be able to build whatever they wanted on the parcel and would not be subject to zoning restrictions. Appelbaum considered this great news because they were allowing a number of high-rise condominium buildings to be constructed there.
As I pointed out in my piece, building in Vancouver does not seem to have been excessively constrained by zoning restrictions.
“The problem is that it’s not clear how badly the city needs more housing right now. The city is actually considering a program to buy up vacant condo units to prop up their price. The city apparently views its problem as too much housing, not too little. Over the last year house prices in Vancouver have fallen 5.7 percent, somewhat more rapidly than the 4.3 percent average decline across Canada. Perhaps Appelbaum thinks prices should drop more rapidly, but they are clearly headed in the right direction for people who think housing costs too much.”
Vancouver has actually been very successful in accommodating a rapidly growing population over........