Smart growth and housing affordability in Portland vs. Houston
Len Gilroy has a great post at the Reason Out of Control blog on this topic. Read the whole thing. One excerpt:Randal also points out another glaring piece of the article -- a discussion with a broker whose claims that their new project of 1,200 sq. ft. townhouses priced between $279,000 and $310,000 "is perfect for first-time homebuyers." What?! Maybe if your household is pulling in over $100K per year, but how many first-time homebuyers fall into that category? Don't homes under $150K sound a bit more feasible for first-timers? Here in Houston, you can pick up a brand new single-family suburban home for under $150. Randal hits it right on when he points out that less land use regulation tends to equate with regional housing affordability. Too bad that Portland planners don't get this.Most people know Houston has inexpensive housing, but I'll bet you didn't know they could be $150 cheap, did you? I think I'll hit the ATM tomorrow and buy a couple as an investment... ;-)
posted by Tory Gattis @ 10:42 PM
4 Comments:
More from Randal O'Fool...
I'm wondering where the newsflash is that buying a home in a popular west coast city is more expensive than in Houston.
Of course it's the land use regulation that has made Portland so expensive. It couldn't possibly be it's west coast location, generally excellent weather, high-tech based economy, or upper class denizens that raise prices of townhouses.
Next post: San Francisco townhouses more expensive than El Paso? The horror.
...but the first rule of real estate is location, location, location.
You haven't been to Portland if you think we have compare to Portland in weather, high-tech firms, or completely different demographics (we're more multicultural with many people of different economic classes, Portland is larely white and relatively well off).
Portland has more in common with other west coast cities than we do. Houston is more like the other non-coastal cities (Chicago, Dallas, San Antonio)
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