Will housing ever be more affordable? - Massapequa Post

Q. I’m looking to sell my home, and I’m stunned by the cost of homes these days. My daughter’s family had to move out of the area, not because they needed better jobs, but because their jobs couldn’t pay enough to afford a home, and my wife and I could only help a little. Do you see any hope for housing to be made more affordable? Are there less costly ways to build that could help young people get a foothold on the American Dream? What do you think?

A. Yes, there are many ways to make homes more affordable, but the way to make it happen is very complicated, and I doubt that you’ll see it happen. Think of people, our economy, our system of living arrangements, our communities, separately or combined into large entities, as being like a large woven fabric. There are many threads in this fabric, many colors and textures and many ways the threads are woven, some over, some under and some straight through. Pull at one part of the fabric, poke at another, and the whole composition ruffles, wrinkles, even tears and starts to unravel.

Now, think of how much each thread costs, how someone puts a price on that thread because of its location, its color, its finish within the fabric. That one thread is now thought of as more expensive, special and exclusive. Others see that thread and decide their threads are pretty darn special, too. Soon every thread goes up in value, and anyone trying to weave a new thread into the fabric, or trying to buy that thread, must be in compliance with the costs, rules and location.

Regulators who decide where different threads can be placed, how big or small those threads can be and what they can look like, are people. People are threads in the fabric. Your kids are threads who may or may not find a way to be woven into the fabric as other threads disintegrate or are pulled away. Government, financial institutions, property associations, neighbors and you have to all cooperate to make the fabric stay together.

It’s possible that when enough people refuse to buy a thread or be a thread, then the value of threads diminishes. The cost of making a thread — a home or a commercial building — keeps increasing, so the cost of the components has to be brought down. But the people who make those components have to get paid. Do we cut their salaries? It’s all connected, like a complicated woven fabric in which everything has to work together.

There’s currently a nationwide shortage of housing units and a limited inventory of homes for sale, possibly because it costs more for less, so people are reluctant to move. Prices, the cost of materials, the regulated size of homes, and profit margins for sellers and lenders all need to be reduced. Does anyone see that happening, or do we wait for the fabric to become brittle and start to come apart to respond? Good luck!

© 2024 Monte Leeper

Readers are encouraged to send questions to [email protected], with “Herald question” in the subject line, or to Herald Homes, 2 Endo Blvd., Garden City, NY 11530, Attn: Monte Leeper, architect.

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