3 Comments
Oct 2Liked by Laura McKenna

Sadly, this is not new--that part of NJ was unaffordable for most folks when I spent time there in late 90s. Since then, from what I understand, the national housing market has never recovered from the 2008 crash (cue your favorite villain here...). Only recently do we see upticks in housing activity--multifamily is most in demand now, but not much has been built until very recently. The idea floated by JD Vance last night to use federal land for housing is silly--most of that is located far away from urban and suburban areas where the need is great.

The recent boom of additional dwelling units in parts of California may help out there, though the demand will always be high because California has always been a nice place to live, in spite of what we hear about folks moving to Arizona, and because jobs are concentrated in areas like San Francisco and San Diego (my home town). The unintended consequences of Proposition 13 in the late 70s is to basically fix the housing stock to preserve low real estate taxes. This illustrates why so many housing issues are really local, as norther NJ is. House size has also increased over the last few decades in part because that's what people want, and builders try to meet that market.

I don't know how to fix much of this, but it will take a mix of zoning changes, reinvestment in inner city areas to rebuild old stock, more public transportation options, and less resistance from homeowners to development. It's not just building new spaces.

I'm sorry your son hasn't found a job--maybe he should look into obtaining a commission in one of the military services where his talents could be better used. From what you've written about him in the past,. I think he would find the Air Force congenial--they have a wider variety of support career fields that might suit him.

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Oct 1Liked by Laura McKenna

So sad and so true. I just sent you some info on creating Independent Apartment Communities (IACs). Hope it's helpful.

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author

Thanks, Kris. Sorry, been backed up with email and fiddling with someone's epilepsy medicine. Just getting to it today. Sigh.

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