I had a revelation yesterday I know gasp…
but! I have noticed a lot of the land in Boston that once occupied jobs for the ordinary have been replaced by jobs where you need a high degree of education.
Housing real estate has gone through the roof because of this but also the city Limits who can be contractors, by license requirements, regulations etc. and that has driven the price of real estate.
But how does a mayor offer so many permits for buildings that will occupy work that 95% of the graduates of your public schools won’t work.
And not offer any middle class jobs like manufacturing, or deregulation on contractors so more can participate in small business.
I just see so many urban areas struggling because the lack of middle class jobs but a huge increase of jobs the locals won’t work… how is this ok?
Supply and demand. There is a large demand for land in urban areas across the US right now and there is a very limited supply. This is also driving the price of land up in the immediate suburbs. In some cases, the exurbs are seeing land values rise as well but not in all areas.
In terms of affordability, that is a relative term and concept. What is affordable to a college graduate with a high paying job may not be affordable to someone who holds a high school diploma and works a blue collar job.
I am of the view that if you can’t afford something, don’t buy it. In that regard, I don’t believe that people have the right to “affordable housing” and they don’t have the right to live where they choose. I would personally love to live right on the lake up at Lake Tahoe, but I can’t afford it.
In terms of middle class jobs, those have been vanishing since the 80s. Urban areas tend to have high-paying jobs and then low-paying jobs for the serf class to work. There is no middle class, at least not what we remember the middle class being in the 70s and 80s. My mother worked the front desk part-time at a doctor’s office and my dad was a pharmacy technician, neither job required a college degree. We had a single family home, newer cars, family vacations, private school, etc. No issues. That wouldn’t be possible now in most places, unfortunately.
I’ve spent my life equally split between living in major cities and very rural areas. I think what we are seeing with city real estate is very cyclical. Right now things are at an all time high and those who invested when things were bad are making a bundle. As the cities get overcrowded things will go south as they always do and people will flee the urban areas as they always have. Millennials are just starting to figure out that they can have more for their money the further out they go. When they leave the cities, expect prices to plummet. When that happens you should buy up any slice of land that you can. On the next up-turn you will cash in. My husband is buying up land in major non-trendy cities right now on auction. He just bought a parking lot for $1 and paid the $750 in back taxes. He is going to get a contractor to lay down some blacktop and fence it off. Then we wait. We can turn it into a parking business or sell it off as it is only zoned for parking and it is flanked by two government buildings. Start looking at ways to create wealth for yourself.
But it’s the city that gives permits for these buildings…
Now if I am sitting at my mayors desk I look at map of the city and 95% of the permits I gave out my city school kids (the residents) can’t work… I HAVE a HUGE PROBLEM, where will they work? Where will they live?
A market is great, but our values and culture I think is more important then pushing thousands in to poverty.
And when your residents are so stupid you don’t protest the mayor, it’s just a fcuked up situation
Of course the city only wants high-end luxury dwellings. That’s any city in America! The mayors of these cities wouldn’t be doing their jobs if they weren’t trying to get upscale development going. High-end dwellings bring in high income earners who spend their money locally. High income earners have more money to spend individually than several lower income earners. It makes sense to pack as many high income earners in as they can.
I think the expectation is that those who get priced out need to commute in and those who wish to stay need to get in line for public housing. That’s how every city I have ever lived in has ever worked.
These cities have always been a place for the bottom of the barrel people came to find work, and live a decent life. It’s used to be a good balance, no more… contracts are only given to the mayors friends. Which kills small business… and avg joe could have been laid off and the next day could be doing something else maybe less pay but working and paying rent.
These polices in these cities are killing ingenuity entrepreneurship …
I guess my question is if the mayor refuses to give permits out to let’s say PWC, or VERTEX
and says we need manufacturing, we will hold out for let’s say Gillette, why is that a bad thing? Besides the climate hoax claim.
What I think doesn’t matter. I don’t run a major US city. I’m just telling you how it is based on my experience living in multiple US cities - DC, SF, NYC, ATL, LA, etc.
They do zone out permits for type of work. They require every new building that goes up to have commercial space…
mayors don’t allocate land for different projects the city needs? Interesting