The Death of the Starter Home?

[Conan]

what do you mean how? are you serious or a just a troll?

I'm being serious. How are starter homes bad for the environment? I'm assuming you're not trolling here.

 

[88m3]

I'm being serious. How are starter homes bad for the environment? I'm assuming you're not trolling here.

The infrastructure to support them, suburban sprawl, and resources to build them...

loss of trees
loss of wetlands
impervious surfaces can create a huge range of problems

There's a lot and I'm probably just scratching the surface

 

[Conan]

The infrastructure to support them, suburban sprawl, and resources to build them...

loss of trees
loss of wetlands
impervious surfaces can create a huge range of problems

There's a lot and I'm probably just scratching the surface

But this is applicable to all housing not just starter homes. In addition, the housing that's being built now (bigger and grander) is more harmful to the environment.

Dense, multi-family housing is the solution. Cuts back on sprawl, makes mass transit more feasible, per capita a better use of precious resources, and so on

 

[GnauzBookOfRhymes]

This isn’t necessarily true. There’s a massive housing shortage and has been for a while. Also, “starter homes” being built has been in decline since the 90s.

Trust me breh - builders were scared shytless after the bust and the rate of new construction for the next 10 yrs or so was only very gradually increased. Even as the economy improved after the recession, builders were always paranoid of finding themselves with a ton of supply but demand drying up. Go to the outskirts of any middle sized city in the country and there are endless developments created in the early/mid 2000s that only in the last couple of years have been fully occupied. In many places it's obvious that the builders went out of business bc you'll see a row of houses and then large empty plots where houses were planned but never completed.

 

[Conan]

Trust me breh - builders were scared shytless after the bust and the rate of new construction for the next 10 yrs or so was only very gradually increased. Even as the economy improved after the recession, builders were always paranoid of finding themselves with a ton of supply but demand drying up. Go to the outskirts of any middle sized city in the country and there are endless developments created in the early/mid 2000s that only in the last couple of years have been fully occupied. In many places it's obvious that the builders went out of business bc you'll see a row of houses and then large empty plots where houses were planned but never completed.

Which is why government needs to get back in the housing business. This is too critical of a need to leave to the whims of private developers. Plus the mistakes of the projects don't need to be repeated.

 

[GnauzBookOfRhymes]

Which is why government needs to get back in the housing business. This is too critical of a need to leave to the whims of private developers. Plus the mistakes of the projects don't need to be repeated.

Government is in the housing business. It's called affordable housing and they are complete/abject failures at it.

 

[Conan]

Government is in the housing business. It's called affordable housing and they are complete/abject failures at it.

True. They need to be better at it. Easier said than done.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

When has anyone buying their first house needed it to be a new home?

Good question. Around a few cities in my state though, there are areas where they buy up land and build cookie-cutter neighborhoods that are purposely made and marketed for young professionals, new families, etc. They're basically a step up from townhomes and condos, but they are full fledged houses. They just all look the same and aren't spaced very far apart, and they do seem to be marketed to first time home buyers.

 

[BillBanneker]

Trust me breh - builders were scared shytless after the bust and the rate of new construction for the next 10 yrs or so was only very gradually increased. Even as the economy improved after the recession, builders were always paranoid of finding themselves with a ton of supply but demand drying up. Go to the outskirts of any middle sized city in the country and there are endless developments created in the early/mid 2000s that only in the last couple of years have been fully occupied. In many places it's obvious that the builders went out of business bc you'll see a row of houses and then large empty plots where houses were planned but never completed.

You’re actually proving my point, housing demand doesn’t just disappear and builders intentionally slowed new construction volume which lowers supply. The market pretty much recovered by 2014-2015 , you can look at the St Louis Fed numbers. There hasn’t been a glut of available housing for a while now.