> Not quite Prop 13 but you can't have high increases in property values, and simultaneously have affordable housing.
Sure you can, you just also need to build new housing. The key is that the new housing has to be higher density than the old housing — the value is primarily in the land, not the house.
If a developer could legitimately and easily build a 4-plex where any single-family home exists right now, the prices of SFHs would likely stay high — they are still a luxury, and become more so as they become rarer, raising prices further — while the units in a 4-plex (still housing!) are more affordable.
Everyone wins. Except we can’t do that, because we can’t build denser housing in basically any of California.
Since SFH owners tend to view living next to a 4-plex as a disaster, it doesn't seem to happen the way you envision. Almost all apartment here in Silicon Valley are built on boulevards, often displacing low end retail. Nice apartment, too bad you have to drive four miles to the nearest dry cleaner.
As of recently, you will be able to build a fourplex on any SFH plot, with the passage of SB9! It's not perfect, but it is a massive step in the right direction.
Unfortunately, for SB9, this is only true for you, not a developer -- it requires that the owner retain one of the units as a primary residence. That will make it much less applicable.
Homeowners typically go ballistic at any concept for something other than single family homes in their neighborhoods.
Certainly allowing something as modest as allowing say 25% of lots in R-1 areas to be duplexes would go a long way to helping, as would allowing so called granny units (small houses in back yards or as part of garage) would also make quite a difference.
Sure you can, you just also need to build new housing. The key is that the new housing has to be higher density than the old housing — the value is primarily in the land, not the house.
If a developer could legitimately and easily build a 4-plex where any single-family home exists right now, the prices of SFHs would likely stay high — they are still a luxury, and become more so as they become rarer, raising prices further — while the units in a 4-plex (still housing!) are more affordable.
Everyone wins. Except we can’t do that, because we can’t build denser housing in basically any of California.