A recent article in The Atlantic argues that developments during the COVID-19 pandemic have disproven the claim that new housing construction causes gentrification. The author writes:
“The pandemic has radically decreased demand for big-city living while also increasing the quantity of available apartments. Yet this basic fact, plain for all to see, flies in the face of much received wisdom about the factors that cause urban housing prices to go up or down.”
“Yet this anti-growth partnership presumes that the interests of the landed and the landless are aligned—that a policy of more tightly regulated development can both generate wealth for those who own property and redistribute it to those who don’t. In the 21st century, when halting the rise of rents and property values in many large cities has taken a global pandemic, the logic that undergirds this movement deserves a critical look.”
Cascade’s Take: Oregon has faced rising housing costs for decades because of stringent land use policies and high regulatory fees that artificially inflate the cost of building homes, and thus their prices to buyers.
To make housing more affordable, Oregon cities with urban growth boundaries, such as Portland and Bend, should make more land available to developers and cut back on regulatory fees. Doing so will help ease the housing crisis by providing more housing stock, without increasing the burden placed on current residents.
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