OUR OPINION: Boost regional supply to help meet housing demand
October 8, 2012 at 4:30 pm in Grand Forks Herald
Note to civic leaders in North Dakota communities such as Larimore, Thompson, Manvel, Ardoch and Minto:
If you’re not already thinking about how to benefit from Grand Forks’ housing shortage, you probably should start. Continue Reading
California’s Bay Area residents used to say “Drive until you can afford a house” because property values near the cities priced folks out of the market. But with a gallon of gas over $4.00 in California, transportation costs must be considered in determining where to live. The same is true in all parts of this country.
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When I lived in the Bay Area I drove 30 miles each way to work and thought nothing of it. Everyone did the same. You simply could not afford to live where you worked.
I would hate to have to do that now.
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This is the kind of situation where a community like Thompson could really step up and build for the future. Unfortunately for them (and the region at large), they couldn’t even agree to pave their streets for God knows how many years, so I doubt we can be looking to them for progressive action on housing.
Unfortunately, a lot of the other communities in the region are probably a bit too far out of GF to be a highly convenient commute, or a bit too small to have the wherewithal to undertake the scale of development that would really make waves.
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I agree this is a golden opportunity for the small outlying towns to cash in. I have a hard time with the suggestion that it come from city government.
Where is the market? As we have discussed before, there is something artificially holding back construction in this region. When supplies are tight, prices go up. In response to this people build more to meet the supply and cash in on the higher prices; except in GF and the surrounding area.
The housing shortage in GF is nothing new. It was that way when I bought my first house here in 2007. Apartments were hard to come by and our “modestly priced home” never even made it to market. After getting 3 previous houses sold from underneath us, the realtor gave us first dibs on the one we bought without ever listing it.
Can someone tell me why there is not and has not been more construction?
Who or what is preventing the market from doing what it is designed to do?
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Why aren’t any communities in Minnesota mentioned in this commentary?
Warren, Fisher, Crookston, Alvarado, Climax…
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No one knows what the Obamites are going to do next; why take a risk?
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This points to a central problem: govts continue to change the rules of the game. People buy a house counting on the mortgage exemption, and now that seems to disappear. People invest for favorable tax rates on dividends and capital gains, and that will also disappear. Companies are on record as saying they will not expand because they do not know the future consequences under a govt with a voracious appetite for money.
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Valid points but easily dealt with: all future mortgages will not enjoy the tax break. Remember, the tax break was put in place as a thank you to the construction/housing industry. It was a way to increase home sales (and profits) without having to get an appropriation from the government kitty.
It is popular because most people equate the American Dream with home ownership.
As for dividends and capital gains, those rates are still lower than they used to be. I would notice a hit, but not a major one. I am not a 1%. You can mess with them.
Remember: we had two terms of a cut tax supply side President and the economy did not grow at any appreciable rate. I think our difficulties (entitlements) are a much more systematic and cannot be changed with simple changes to the tax code. Look at L&M, most people wait longer than a week to let you know that since you won’t give me my tax break I am taking my jobs to someplace that will.
Social Security and Medicare are the 3 rail of politics. They have been since at least 1968. They are the reason we are going bankrupt. Not defense, not welfare, not school lunches or Big Bird.
Until we face up to that reality, no matter what we do the patient will die. You cannot save a person who continues to bleed. If you do not stop the bleeding nothing else matters.
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My oldest bought his first house in 2005. To install new windows he applied for the $7500 interest free loan from the government that was offered at that time. The next year (2006) the government offered an $8000 credit on your taxes for first time homebuyers….free money. That was a little frustrating.
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END Government distortion of free-market supply-and-demand norms.
Get the Government OUT of the housing industry.
NO FREE RIDES for Real-Estate Professionals.
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