Tuesday, September 29, 2015

UCLA Study Suggests Los Angeles Home Prices May Rise for Another 4 More Years & Go Up Another 35% in Price



Despite LA's home prices having already gone up for three straight years - and having risen 27% higher, KCCP reports on their website the UCLA Anderson Forecast released on Monday believes housing prices - based on prior recoveries - may  continue to rise for another four years - and go up another 35% in price - which would mean a total increase of 62%.

And the big reason for the continuing rise in prices is the lack of new housing being built.  And the lack of enough new housing being built will mean that existing housing will get  still more expensive and the rising costs of land and materials and labor will make the construction of new 'affordable housing' even more expensive. And that will make the needed per unit subsidy financially unsustainable for anything more than a comparative  handful of units.

The only possible short term solution I can see for even  a small part of this problem is to find ways to make all new housing easier and faster to build - without  overwhelming existing communities - until the new construction can at least keep up with the demand.

But in the long run - we need to find financially sustainable ways for people to buy homes near where they work and near schools where their kids can get good educations.  And for most of our country's history that has meant finding places where they could move to and be able to get a good job - and buy a home of their own withing walking distance of a school where their kids could get a good education.

And since that ad hoc system appears to have broken down, we now need to invent far better ways for families to find communities where they work and afford to live and where their kids can get good educations - and that may turn out to  be the very next killer application for tech to tackle.

No comments: