Great piece—I live very close to LA's G Line (dedicated bus lane) and a metro stop, so am bullish (maybe delusionally so?) on the city's public transportation future.
You can't write this article if you have ever talked to anyone who actually owns or builds housing in LA. Every year, making or owning housing in LA gets significantly more difficult. Why are not housing permits going up dramatically? The draconian permit process and rent control will continue to curtail investment in housing. If the “mansion tax” works, why have apartment and land development sales stopped? This tax will not build affordable housing. The cost of market-rate housing is less than half of what an " affordable" project done by the city costs. Why would you invest in LA? Why would you subject yourself to the brain damage of the city of LA? Los Angeles is currently uninvestable.
Thanks for your thoughts. I admittedly haven't done as much reporting on the intricacies of LA's housing policy as I have done on transit, streets, and rail. From what I understand, LA's mansion tax probably isn't the best-designed policy, since it disproportionately affects multi-family housing, including non-luxury buildings. I still think real estate transfer taxes on high-end transactions for mansions and individual luxury units can be a good revenue source for affordable housing.
I disagree that LA is making it more difficult to build housing. ED1, along with many state housing laws, are changing the development calculus for all kinds of projects. Most of those policies are only just starting to go into effect and get used. 16,000 units proposed through ED1 in one year is very impressive.
Great piece—I live very close to LA's G Line (dedicated bus lane) and a metro stop, so am bullish (maybe delusionally so?) on the city's public transportation future.
You can't write this article if you have ever talked to anyone who actually owns or builds housing in LA. Every year, making or owning housing in LA gets significantly more difficult. Why are not housing permits going up dramatically? The draconian permit process and rent control will continue to curtail investment in housing. If the “mansion tax” works, why have apartment and land development sales stopped? This tax will not build affordable housing. The cost of market-rate housing is less than half of what an " affordable" project done by the city costs. Why would you invest in LA? Why would you subject yourself to the brain damage of the city of LA? Los Angeles is currently uninvestable.
Take a look at KEVIN ERDMANN's substack?
Thanks for your thoughts. I admittedly haven't done as much reporting on the intricacies of LA's housing policy as I have done on transit, streets, and rail. From what I understand, LA's mansion tax probably isn't the best-designed policy, since it disproportionately affects multi-family housing, including non-luxury buildings. I still think real estate transfer taxes on high-end transactions for mansions and individual luxury units can be a good revenue source for affordable housing.
I disagree that LA is making it more difficult to build housing. ED1, along with many state housing laws, are changing the development calculus for all kinds of projects. Most of those policies are only just starting to go into effect and get used. 16,000 units proposed through ED1 in one year is very impressive.