Housing affordability a supply and demand issue

The recent forum held to discuss the need to promote “affordable” housing is premised on a flawed idea. Homes are not too expensive. Any declaration that housing costs are too high is arbitrary.

The idea is born from a desire to create a problem that can be used to convince people to adopt a government solution. It is nothing more than propaganda designed to move public opinion. Politicians want to cajole taxpayers into subsidizing housing for the politicians’ favored groups.

Much emphasis is put on the fact that low wage workers are unable to afford housing near their place of employment. This is a challenge for everyone, not just lower income workers. Every home is too expensive for somebody.

There is disparity in compensation between the people that work for the new tech businesses coming to our area and people in less well-compensated occupations. Our political leaders want the high paying industrial base and those workers will continue to drive up the cost of available housing. The contingent of higher income earners will out-bid lower income people for limited housing. This is not a new phenomenon. It has been so since the emergence of urban centers.

Take heart. There is a simple fix. Build more housing. It’s all about supply and demand. Let the market correct the imbalance. Remove as many restrictions to building new homes as possible. Any developer can tell you what rules need to be changed to make it happen.

In every housing market I have studied, government meddling has produced a very small number of subsidized low-income homes and an increase in general market prices. Artificial caps on market value are a disincentive to development. If you try to force housing affordability through price control, mandates or quotas, the cost and availability of all other housing goes up. People that build and rent homes will not build and rent them unless they are adequately compensated. I suggest that affordability is not a problem for the residents of Central Texas. We already live here. We should not be forced to subsidize newcomers.

JOE HOENIGMAN

Trail of the Flowers