The Expert Podcast

# The War on Suburbia: How Zoning Battles Are Reshaping the American Dream

All over the country we've seen a lot of pushback against single-family zoning. We've seen some governments try to ban it in states like California and Washington, some cities like Portland Oregon, different parts of the country. Now here comes an article from Time Magazine saying that America should end its love affair with the single-family house - not just zoning but just people shouldn't like that anyways - and why some places are having a tough time making that happen.

So first of all let us know what your thoughts are on this. Do you think that we should abandon single family homes as a form of residential ownership or residential living? Many people want to have a single family home - it's kind of like that historic American dream white picket fence traditional stereotype. The argument against them is that well it's unfair to people that want to pay less for residents because single-family homes cost more because it includes land. If you build a property like what you see on the screen it's a multi-story multi-family home whether it's condos or apartments people can afford to live cheaper and it's more fair it's more equitable for society that you know some people don't have bigger houses everybody lives in the same thing. What are your thoughts on that?

What about how it deals with the infrastructure? Is it better to have denser populations or does that affect things like school parks quality of life? Single family house has been the upward mobility destination for pretty much everybody even if you started out in an apartment and then a condo maybe a townhouse. Even if you are in a single family house your aspiration is to have more of a single family house bigger land farther apart move out in the suburbs if you lived in the city. A lot of times people want to move into suburbs. Is that going to change just because Time Magazine or the government or somebody else wants you to do something different? That's why it says it's a tough sell.

What is the government going to do if they can't sell people on it? Are they going to make it happen through other means? We see this happening in the electric vehicle market - nobody really is buying electric vehicles they're less than one percent of the cars on the road however the government in some states are looking to ban them - I'm sorry to require them - ban banned gasoline vehicles by two thousand thirty seven years away. Some states are gonna prohibit gasoline vehicles in six years. State of Washington has a law in the book saying no electric vehicles. Is this what will happen with real estate? If they want electric vehicles to be on the road and people aren't buying them so they're passing laws that require them, will they do the same thing for real estate?

Obviously somebody wants single family homes to be eliminated. Somebody does. I don't know who it is - is it Time Magazine, is it the government, is it somebody else? I don't know. Somebody does because that's all you hear about is banning single-family homes or making single-family homes illegal. Somebody wants it. I don't know if homeowners want it, I don't know if the public wants it, but somebody wants it to happen. So if it doesn't happen by itself whether it's because of articles in Time Magazine or zoning changes or maybe even other subtle changes to laws, at some point what does the government do or whoever that person is that wants single-family homes to be gone? Did they pass the same kind of laws for new ones?

If you are a person who wants to live in a single-family home what do you do about it? Do you get in while the getting is good? Do you buy one now? Do you plan ahead and say well gee if everybody is going to be building these kind of apartment complexes and I don't want to live in one of those I better get me a house? Is that your strategy or what is your strategy if you think that the single family residential home is going to be under pressure as an option? What would you do? Maybe you don't think that, maybe you don't believe it, maybe it's you know it's a new piece of information, but let's just assume for right now that a single family home is going to be difficult to get. What would you do?

In fact maybe the fact that the market for single family homes the price has gone up so much is also part of the strategy. If you make it less attainable for entry level buyers you won't have buyers entering the market. That's what entry level means - entry level means entry into the market. If you make entry into the market difficult because the home price is now instead of you know 150 160 used to be an entry-level home now an entry-level home might be 300 or 350. If you can keep less people from entering the market and keeping them in other housing formats does that support the long-term goal of the chess game of eliminating single-family homes? And if it is what do you do about it?

Or do you like the idea of living in a denture type of property? Is it more convenient for you to live in an apartment or a condo or a multi-family type home triplex duplex fourplex? A lot of parts of the country have those. Do you live in one now? Are there advantages? Are there disadvantages?

One of the things that is another intersection of the single family house electric vehicle discussion is you know electric vehicles need to be charged obviously and one of the primary suggestions for charging is charging at home overnight because you're not going to be able to charge it in an hour or two to get a full charge on the road at your work at a gas station so to speak electric charging station. So most people say well just charge it at home overnight and you'll be good for the next day. Well if you live in an apartment complex you don't have a garage where you can charge it at night you might have to park on the street you might have to park in a parking lot. So how do those two things go together electric vehicles and multi-family homes? If you want electric vehicles the best way to have those would be to have a single family home where you can put it in a garage charge it up and be on your way. So that's one other conflict between those two seemingly apparent directions that we're heading.

What about the density of impact on utilities? You know if you have single-family homes spread out you maybe have 20 homes in a few acres. If you have an apartment complex like the one you see on your screen you might have a hundred homes or 200 homes in a few acres. Is that going to put more impact on the sewer system the water system electrical even things like internet? Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

So the future of single family homes and the debate about that is an interesting one. We'd love to hear your thoughts pros and cons what side of this are you on or do you not care? Doesn't it not matter because you know where you're going to live? Look they're not going to tear down and erase all the single family homes anytime soon and anybody who's watching this video in your lifetime there will be single family homes available. The question is will there be less of them will they be harder to live in and will there be pressures to try to avoid future development like taxes like zoning in adjacent areas?

If you're buying a single family home not only for the home but for the lifestyle of the suburb and there's a big apartment complex right next door does that change you selecting that home in that area? Do you pick something that's more remote more suburban and the fact that maybe the transportation is tougher? Because look if you live 30 miles or 40 miles out of town versus in town now you're driving let's say 60 or 70 miles a day 20 miles per gallon so you're putting in five gallons right for your trip every day times five bucks a gallon that's 25 a day. So how does that add up? Does that make a difference on your decision? Gas prices are also affecting where people live because you don't want to live as far away from where you have to work. Work from home solve some of that but these are all interrelated subjects. Tell us how they affect you.