Policymakers in other cities can learn from Minneapolis
April 25, 2024 7:35 AM Subscribe
Minneapolis Land Use Reforms Offer a Blueprint for Housing Affordability: Rents stayed flat as more apartments were built, even as the rest of Minnesota saw increases.
Minneapolis’ success in building new apartments has enabled the city to substantially add to its housing supply and keep rent growth low. From 2017 to 2022, Minneapolis increased its housing stock by 12% while rents grew by just 1%. Over the same period, the rest of Minnesota added only 4% to its housing stock while rents went up by 14% [...] Meanwhile, the level of homelessness in Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, dropped 12% from 2017 to 2022 while it rose 14% in the rest of Minnesota.
Minneapolis’ success in building new apartments has enabled the city to substantially add to its housing supply and keep rent growth low. From 2017 to 2022, Minneapolis increased its housing stock by 12% while rents grew by just 1%. Over the same period, the rest of Minnesota added only 4% to its housing stock while rents went up by 14% [...] Meanwhile, the level of homelessness in Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, dropped 12% from 2017 to 2022 while it rose 14% in the rest of Minnesota.
Supply and demand. It's not just a suggestion, it's the law.
posted by MattD at 7:57 AM on April 25 [2 favorites]
posted by MattD at 7:57 AM on April 25 [2 favorites]
I live in Atlanta, where parking requirements have driven housing prices through the roof. Down the street from us, they're building a 22-story apartment building, but the entire first 8 floors are parking garage. And this is in the (small) section of Atlanta where you absolutely could live without a car. SMH. Go Minneapolis.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 8:21 AM on April 25 [4 favorites]
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 8:21 AM on April 25 [4 favorites]
Austin, TX is seeing rent fall. FALL.
I really wish of all the ideological battles the far left in greater Boston want to wage, they just concede the blatantly obvious empirical observation that housing in Boston is unaffordable to many people because other people are willing and able to pay more for the same housing stock. And that anything that gets those other people housed elsewhere saves the lower class Bostonians from being pushed out (out of Boston or worse, out of doors).
Thankfully, that battle is mostly raging on social media. The Commonwealth has passed a law requiring zoning changes in any town served by the MBTA, and we're starting to see results.
posted by ocschwar at 8:45 AM on April 25 [5 favorites]
I really wish of all the ideological battles the far left in greater Boston want to wage, they just concede the blatantly obvious empirical observation that housing in Boston is unaffordable to many people because other people are willing and able to pay more for the same housing stock. And that anything that gets those other people housed elsewhere saves the lower class Bostonians from being pushed out (out of Boston or worse, out of doors).
Thankfully, that battle is mostly raging on social media. The Commonwealth has passed a law requiring zoning changes in any town served by the MBTA, and we're starting to see results.
posted by ocschwar at 8:45 AM on April 25 [5 favorites]
people seeing how bad it is in the US generally have no idea how bad the Canadians and Australians let their supply-restricted markets go. Netherlands too for that matter.
Curiously, rents in Tokyo are about where they were when I left in 2000.
posted by torokunai at 8:49 AM on April 25 [4 favorites]
Curiously, rents in Tokyo are about where they were when I left in 2000.
“We consider ourselves as a city-shaping company,” Hirofumi Nomoto, then chief executive of Tokyu, said in a 2016 interview after the completion of the Futako Tamagawa redevelopment project. “In Europe, for instance, railways companies simply connect cities through their terminals. That is a pretty normal way of operating in this industry, whereas what we do is completely different: We create cities.”https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/11/opinion/editorials/tokyo-housing.html
posted by torokunai at 8:49 AM on April 25 [4 favorites]
With regard to addressing homelessness in Minneapolis, it’s so much more than city housing policy. Hennepin County has been trying to improve housing stability through concentrated outreach, converting hotels during the pandemic to longer-term housing to keep high-risk people healthy from contracting COVID, then buying even more motels and converting them to transitional housing, to helping convert a nursing home next to the county hospital to supportive housing with a clinic and transitional medical care support, and so on.
The city of Minneapolis participates in outreach efforts in conjunction with a number of social services partner organizations, but they also bulldoze encampments on the regular. It’s a huge, multi-pronged effort that goes beyond changing zoning regulations.
posted by Maarika at 8:58 AM on April 25 [13 favorites]
The city of Minneapolis participates in outreach efforts in conjunction with a number of social services partner organizations, but they also bulldoze encampments on the regular. It’s a huge, multi-pronged effort that goes beyond changing zoning regulations.
posted by Maarika at 8:58 AM on April 25 [13 favorites]
Yonah Freemark has a nice article up about how zoning reform is an absolutely necessary and vital part of the picture but of course we need subsidy of deeply affordable housing as well. Luckily the two go in hand because the same luxury housing (SFH in urban areas) owners who scream about an apartment building taller than four stories are often the ones opposing any public housing development because of "concerns" about "crime" and of course the all-important property values.
You do see a group of people who are absolutely infuriated by doing anything that would benefit cringe yuppies who pay market rate for units, even if not doing anything for those people ends up driving more displacement overall.
posted by threementholsandafuneral at 9:53 AM on April 25 [4 favorites]
You do see a group of people who are absolutely infuriated by doing anything that would benefit cringe yuppies who pay market rate for units, even if not doing anything for those people ends up driving more displacement overall.
posted by threementholsandafuneral at 9:53 AM on April 25 [4 favorites]
The Commonwealth has passed a law requiring zoning changes in any town served by the MBTA, and we're starting to see results.
Sadly, some of those results have been towns saying "Hell no!" to that.
posted by briank at 10:14 AM on April 25 [1 favorite]
Sadly, some of those results have been towns saying "Hell no!" to that.
posted by briank at 10:14 AM on April 25 [1 favorite]
people seeing how bad it is in the US generally have no idea how bad the Canadians and Australians let their supply-restricted markets go.
Canada has no relief-valve cities like the US does - like Phoenix, Dallas, and Houston, which build a lot of housing, in a perverse way taking pressure off the more desirable (from a climate and density perspective) on the coasts. Canada builds a lot more housing in its major cities than the US does. Los Angeles doing about 31k new units per year for 12m people is pretty sad. San Francisco is even worse. I think a month ago, they permitted 1 unit, but they generally do about 2500 units per year, which is horrible.
None of the major Canadian cities do that few.
NYC generally does lead the US in housing construction, but at numbers barely higher than Dallas/Phoenix/Houston do every year, and at 1/3 the population.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:44 PM on April 25 [2 favorites]
Canada has no relief-valve cities like the US does - like Phoenix, Dallas, and Houston, which build a lot of housing, in a perverse way taking pressure off the more desirable (from a climate and density perspective) on the coasts. Canada builds a lot more housing in its major cities than the US does. Los Angeles doing about 31k new units per year for 12m people is pretty sad. San Francisco is even worse. I think a month ago, they permitted 1 unit, but they generally do about 2500 units per year, which is horrible.
None of the major Canadian cities do that few.
NYC generally does lead the US in housing construction, but at numbers barely higher than Dallas/Phoenix/Houston do every year, and at 1/3 the population.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:44 PM on April 25 [2 favorites]
The Commonwealth has passed a law requiring zoning changes in any town served by the MBTA, and we're starting to see results.
Sadly, some of those results have been towns saying "Hell no!" to that.
Meanwhile, the towns that didn't even wait to say yes are towns with sizable working class populations like Malden. We really do have a problem with limousine liberals run MA.
posted by ocschwar at 1:24 PM on April 25 [2 favorites]
people seeing how bad it is in the US generally have no idea how bad the Canadians and Australians let their supply-restricted markets go.Ontario issues 2x the building permits per capita that California does. Texas is ahead of Ontario, but British Columbia issues 20% more permits per capita than the lone star state.
posted by pmv at 5:53 PM on April 25
https://thoughtleadership.rbc.com/its-never-been-harder-to-rent-in-canada-vacancy-rates-fall-to-35-year-low/
vs
Rental Vacancy Rate for California (CARVAC)
I've been watching several Canadian industry YouTubers (out of sheer morbid curiosity), and one thing they've said is that getting a permit is the easy part about building in Canada.
posted by torokunai at 6:42 PM on April 25
vs
Rental Vacancy Rate for California (CARVAC)
I've been watching several Canadian industry YouTubers (out of sheer morbid curiosity), and one thing they've said is that getting a permit is the easy part about building in Canada.
posted by torokunai at 6:42 PM on April 25
« Older "One or more of the following may apply to your... | From Wonder Island to Kiyosu City Newer »
Getting rid of the ability of bastards who only care about property values and parking to fuck everything up for the rest of us would have been nice, but oh well.
posted by Ferreous at 7:56 AM on April 25 [15 favorites]