Missing Middle Housing is essential for creating mixed use, walkable neighborhoods. We need to resume building neighborhoods of that sort so cars are genuinely optional.
Housing is the single biggest budget item for most people followed by transportation because car ownership is nigh unavoidable for most Americans. Even if rent doesn't actually drop, if you can live without a car and still get to work, suddenly some things make sense.
We no longer build functioning small towns and neighborhoods. We expect everyone to drive everywhere.
Financing is part of the problem because the easiest thing to finance is single family detached housing thanks to precedents set shortly after WW2 which have strongly shaped housing expectations and policies for decades.
Tax incentives, like breaks on interest, tend to encourage "housing inflation" where those who can afford a house at all buy a bigger house because it's no more expensive than a smaller house. It doesn't benefit most people looking for cheap housing. It just encourages Americans to build larger homes.
Zoning laws are absolutely part of the problem. I completely agree with that point.
But New Urbanism has tried to get around that and one of their major sticking points is difficulty in financing projects.
Housing is the single biggest budget item for most people followed by transportation because car ownership is nigh unavoidable for most Americans. Even if rent doesn't actually drop, if you can live without a car and still get to work, suddenly some things make sense.
We no longer build functioning small towns and neighborhoods. We expect everyone to drive everywhere.
Financing is part of the problem because the easiest thing to finance is single family detached housing thanks to precedents set shortly after WW2 which have strongly shaped housing expectations and policies for decades.
Tax incentives, like breaks on interest, tend to encourage "housing inflation" where those who can afford a house at all buy a bigger house because it's no more expensive than a smaller house. It doesn't benefit most people looking for cheap housing. It just encourages Americans to build larger homes.
Zoning laws are absolutely part of the problem. I completely agree with that point.
But New Urbanism has tried to get around that and one of their major sticking points is difficulty in financing projects.