Heaton Fixes the Housing Crisis

We need more housing and less zoning.

Andrew Heaton | 6.16.2023 10:55 AM

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A significant number of zoning laws are restrictions homeowners put in place on other people's property to ensure their own property maintains or gains value.

This is great if you're a homeowner, but it sucks if you're Andrew Heaton.

Photo credit: Media Drum World/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom. Music: "Wellington Joke" by Manos Mars; "Happy Happy Game Show" by Kevin MacLeod.

Host, writer: Andrew Heaton
Producer, graphics: Austin Bragg
Producer, graphics: John Carter
Producer, graphics, editor: Meredith Bragg

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Yes Way, Ted 2 years ago

If you don't like zoning laws, move to the country near Houston where you can live next to criminal illegals who use their AR for target practice. If you ask them to stop, they murder you and your children.

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2. TheReEncogitationer 2 years ago
  
  Nice Strawman you got there....Wouldn't want anything bad happening to it.
  
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3. CE 2 years ago
  
  Sounds a lot like California, which has very strict zoning laws. Maybe the zoning laws aren't the difference?
  
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4. charliehall 2 years ago
  
  Houston itself famously lacks zoning laws, and it has a shortage of affordable housing and property taxes that are multiples of what homeowners in New York City pay.
  
  We do need more housing and we need to relax some zoning laws but going to the other extreme didn't work either.
  
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Naime Bond 2 years ago

We need about 30 million less people - all illegals to start. Then remove and replace about 20 million jobs over time using AI and gradually reduce the population while increasing productivity and standard of living to 250 million or less. Start to recapture green spaces by turning concrete back to grass and trees; lower building heights. In other words use technology spurred on by mercantilism to quadruple output by reducing labor force.

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1. TheReEncogitationer 2 years ago
  
  Fuck Off, Acid-Tripping Thanos!
  
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2. CE 2 years ago
  
  The USA easily has room for one billion people. Who cares where they come from, as long as they support themselves?
  
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3. Unicorn Abattoir 2 years ago
  
  Social engineering. Because that always works out.
  
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  1. Zeb 2 years ago
    
    Naime Bond is here to remind us that anti-libertarian conservatives are still a thing.
    
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4. d.b 2 years ago
  
  Naime Bond;
  I agree with everything you wrote, although ANY numbers in that direction would be an improvement.
  Your "gradually reduce the population" can be done by ending tax incentives for making more children, child care funding, publicly funded breakfast and lunches for schoolchildren, ADFC, TANF, and outright cash to breed more hoodrats like cash welfare &/or racist giveaways like "the Abundant Birth Project" scams.
  Since it is proven that nearly half of all births are not planned or wanted https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/03/1115062: overpopulation can be lowered by simply helping people avoid unwanted pregnancies.
  
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5. rev-arthur-l-kuckland 2 years ago
  
  Is that your final solution?
  
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Diane Reynolds (Paul.) 2 years ago

Soros prosecutor shows once again that "criminal justice reform" means they're just going to arrest and overcharge a whole different group of people. In this case: You if you try to defend yourself against violent subway riders. And if you're black? Yeah, doesn't matter.

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TheReEncogitationer 2 years ago

Andrew Heaton does it again, and very hilariously too!

It is nuisance laws that a Libertarian society needs to keep out the noise, pollution, and fire hazards of Smaug, and a strong National Defense against Sauron, not zoning laws against the tiny houses of Hobbits!

Hobbits would actually be a boon to a town's restaurant and pub districts, what with eating 11 meals a day! The profit margins for owners and the tips to servers, chefs, and bussers would be ginormous! 🙂

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1. CE 2 years ago
  
  Sorry, no shoes, no service.
  
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  1. TheReEncogitationer 2 years ago
    
    Another marketing opportunity! A Skechers with extra width and breadth! Dr. Scholl's Insole Tiles! Uggs that really live up to the name! 🙂
    
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2. Sometimes a Great Notion 2 years ago
  
  And see weed prices skyrocket due to demand; not in my Gondor!
  
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  1. TheReEncogitationer 2 years ago
    
    The weed could be grown hydroponically in the Hobbit holes, making them places for added comfort. 🙂
    
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3. Unicorn Abattoir 2 years ago
  
  Hobbits would actually be a boon to a town’s restaurant and pub districts
  
  Until that wraith bar opens across the street.
  
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CE 2 years ago

The fastest way to end the housing crisis would be to abolish building codes and building permits and zoning. It would cost a lot less to build a house, but we would also have a lot more unsafe houses. Somewhere between where we are now and building anarchy is probably where we want to be, and closer to the latter.

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1. DesigNate 2 years ago
  
  You mean it’s an issue of supply/demand and over regulation?
  
  How dare you?! Good day sir!
  
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2. Diane Reynolds (Paul.) 2 years ago
  
  Allowing low-income, publicly-run transitional housing for at-risk populations that couldn't be built right next door because of the city's own zoning restrictions is one thing. Letting you put in a gas stove? Yeah, or build that house out in the county in an identified 'critical area'? Yeah, no.
  
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3. Zeb 2 years ago
  
  A good start would be to cut out all of the shit from building codes that doesn't actually make things safer and mostly just adds cost. It's one thing to confirm that a house is built properly and isn't a death trap. But current codes are all bloated with extra nonsense.
  I'd also let individual property owners be exempt. If you want to build a death trap for yourself, why is that anyone else's business?
  Also, people managed to get along without building codes and permits for hundreds of years. There were a lot more fires, but I think that's mostly because of using open flames for light and heat.
  
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  1. Minadin 2 years ago
    
    The thing is, when it comes to building codes - those are industry standards that are agreed upon by architects, engineers, contractors, and the like. They are published by a group of people who design and build buildings, not the government. The local government just adops and modifies them.
    
    You could completely eliminate the part where the local Authority Having Jurisdiction adopts and modifies them and codifies it into law, and they would still be followed (mostly) because of lawyers and insurance carriers.
    
    You could (and we should, IMO) completely eliminate zoning laws. Maybe keep ARB's (architectural review boards) around for a while to suss out the Karens in your neighborhood so you know who to line up for the firing squad when the singularity hits.
    
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Stuck in California 2 years ago

Something interesting to me here.

The basic premise is supply and demand. Housing is too expensive because not enough supply. Land use regulations constraining supply rings true.

But the whole "those regulations cost money" aspect always comes up. Somehow, when a single family home costs over a million dollars, I cannot see how the costs of mandates on builders add to the cost of housing. There's no pass-through there, the house is sold on an open market competing with existing homes, existing homes that are selling for more than double what they were selling 7 or 8 years ago (where I live), so those extra costs can't add to the price of housing. They have to just affect margins on builders.

I mean, if I was a builder and had 10 houses here that I spent 5 million to build, if similar homes were going for a million each I'd sell them for 10 million. One million a pop, if I could get it. If I had one fewer regulation or mandate so I could build them for 4.5 million... I'd still sell them for 10 million because that's what houses cost.

I'm not for adding a shitload of fees to construction. It is just a hidden tax, and the type of "tax" that leaves budgets bloated during boom times so governments run up the spending, which bites them in the ass when the economy slows or the city is built out and they have to pay for sewers or streets out of the general fund.

But the "It'll make houses cheaper" argument when builders want some special dispensation to lower their cost doesn't ring true to me.

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1. Zeb 2 years ago
  
  In a very tight market, you are probably right. But if costs were less, then some developers could undercut the prices of others more easily. And in many places the margins on new homes are much smaller than in your example. And you should also consider people who build their own homes or hire someone to build them one. Not every new house is part of a speculative development.
  Seems like the biggest factor in high home prices really is easy credit and 30 year mortgages, though.
  
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  1. Stuck in California 2 years ago
    
    The biggest factor being mortgage rates is true, but I think it's a different end of the puzzle.
    
    Let me explain my logic. Houses are sold based on what the buyer can afford. Since it's generally done on a long term mortgage, the buyer buys as much house as they can get for what they can pay by month. If I can afford $2500 a month, I will get a house that costs me $2500 for mortgage, taxes, and interest. If interest costs rise, I can't pay more because I can't qualify for a loan any larger, so I buy a smaller house.
    
    I am pretty sure the market responds to the costs of land and building, the cost of mortgages, and the buying power of consumers in the market.
    
    My hypothetical is basically how it is where I live, right now, houses have way outpaced inflation. Even Biden era inflation, but from the post crash malaise the neighborhood I live in has gone from $400K to a million. Most new buyers are all priced out and there are obvious reasons, including property taxes, that are well outside this discussion. But it's a very unhealthy market, and I remain unconvinced that petty fees are the driver of this. It HAS to be a supply side issue since nobody is selling existing housing. It's obviously too hard to build new housing in general, else there'd be massive new housing starts and there really aren't.
    
    I might consider the argument that the red tape constrains supply because it takes too damned long to get new houses built and on the market even when houses are selling at a historically high price relative to median incomes. That seems different than something like increasing a water meter fee from $15K to $25K on a million dollar house.
    
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2. Don't look at me! 2 years ago
  
  I can tell you never ran a business.
  
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  1. Stuck in California 2 years ago
    
    Interesting. Do you have anything to add to the discussion?
    
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Eeyore 2 years ago

Those dark skinned Hobbits are the worst.

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1. Unicorn Abattoir 2 years ago
  
  Don't even get me started on the dwarves. I prefer to live in a nice, clean elven community.
  
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  1. Don't look at me! 2 years ago
    
    I’ve made comparisons, and those neighborhoods always come up short.
    
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2. TheReEncogitationer 2 years ago
  
  Oh, an Orc, eh?
  
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Earth-based Human Skeptic 2 years ago

"A significant number of zoning laws are restrictions homeowners put in place on other people's property to ensure their own property maintains or gains value."

Right, that's exactly what me and my monocle-wearing buddies did after moving into a libertarian paradise neighborhood. One day, all those people were living free and doubling the housing supply every week, and the next they had to spend the rest of their lives in the remaining large hovels they happened to own, without the option of selling and moving into some high density eden somewhere else.

Asshole.

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1. Zeb 2 years ago
  
  Municipalities do consider their tax base when making these rules. And if you go back far enough in time it did happen sort of like how you say. I don't know if I'd put it on homeowners in general so much as the sorts of busybodies who get involved with zoning boards and such though.
  
  I think I should be able to sue people for making improvements that increase property values because it just makes my taxes higher.
  
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  1. Earth-based Human Skeptic 2 years ago
    
    Perhaps, but at this point almost every person who bought a home in a section zoned for single family structures did so voluntarily, and I bet deliberately. And probably paid a premium for that desired attribute. I doubt there are any significant numbers of such new zoning being imposed on existing neighborhoods.
    
    On the other hand, the stampede to revoke single family zoning may please some people, even owners. But it essentially steals from others.
    
    As for property taxes, abolish them. Income taxes, too. Head taxes and user fees would make more people question government spending.
    
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RickAbrams 2 years ago (edited)

I did stand-up comedy, but when I discussed a subject, I knew about which I was joking. As an attorney and a real estate broker with a major in political philosophy and a minor in economics, I am able to grasp these subjects. Mr. Heaton is grossly incompetent in economics and government and as a stand-up. Since most the nation shares those qualities with him, he should be vastly successful.

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TJJ2000 2 years ago

Right; but the focal point is only 1/3 the issue.

1) Zoning and building regulation.
2) *Free* Gov-Gun STOLEN mortgage rates / economical cheats.
3) Currency Inflation.

#2. People wouldn't walk so easily into a lifetime of slavery contract for a pile of sticks if 'government' hadn't guaranteed easy-peasy bankruptcy / loans made easy (thwarting personal responsibility and using Gov-Gun to shove that cost onto the taxpayers/workers expense i.e. Socialism/Communism). Essentially encouraging/subsidizing criminal actions.

#3. Consider the big picture of currency. There are those who work for the USD and those who don't do sh*t and get rich. When currency inflates which of the who does it benefit. The rich one's assets go up in price without adding any work-value what-so-ever. Their savings account interest skyrockets; pocketing more money without earning a GD thing. For those without any assets or savings; everything costs more (pumping more money to the rich) who do nothing but watch their assets inflate.

There shouldn't be any inflation PERIOD! Currency should deflate. Over time the USD should get stronger not weaker. That puts the enslaved 'poor' working class back in the ball-game instead of playing money tricks to have them spin their wheels endlessly and go absolutely no where. A deflating currency causes the rich's assets to not build worth by doing absolutely nothing. It causes those who are adding benefit to see those benefits.

^THAT; my friends is why there are those who do-nothing and get rich and those who work endlessly and go nowhere. Currency INFLATION.

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1. TJJ2000 2 years ago (edited)
  
  Think of it this way; The rich and politically powerful are selling you Lemon Dollar Bills (i.e. Quantitative Easing/Fake Money) for your labors that not only ends up *ALL* going back to them (for their asset inflation); but makes your labors worthless as well. Because at the end of the day; The USD is nothing but a medium of value. Inflation = Deflation of *earned* value. (i.e. Consequences of pretending Fake Money has value or that Gov-Guns makes sh*t all by itself).
  
  When you pass Fake Money to someone else; you've stolen the labor for your Fake Money transaction. Think of the word counterfeiting money. That *IS* what this corrupt Nazi-Empire is doing. And those who work are fueling those who don't and sadly because the working population is too bloody stupid to see the obvious.
  
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Libertariantranslator 2 years ago

I recognize that buried home! In Austin Texas it is a psychedelic legend like the Shoe Tree, Eeore's Birthday, Soap Creek Saloon, The Armadillo World Headquarters, Whole Earth, Soyawannaburger, Nothing Strikes Back, The Hole in The Wall, Dirty's, Dan's Hamburgers, The Drag and Discount Electronics. That buried house is the best place to trip during an all-out nuclear attack. Trust me.

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Libertariantranslator 2 years ago

See? Andrew wants to repeal cruel, violent, unusual and force-initiating laws so freedom has room to move. Anarco-infiltrators want to remove laws against murder, blackmail, kidnapping, arson, lynching, burning heretics and vote fraud. See the difference?

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Zeb 2 years ago

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Heaton Fixes the Housing Crisis

We need more housing and less zoning.

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