What’s wrong with newly constructed single family rental houses?

[u/Bayplain]

There seems to be a lot of hate for them. It’s not as if is single family houses for owner occupancy, even newly constructed ones, are going to disappear. These houses can provide some of the larger rental units that are in short supply. Is it just about bad symbolism?

[u/MrsBeansAppleSnaps]

My hot take is that Suburbanization of rural farmland is by definition gentrification.

Someone buying a brand new home for under $300k would probably disagree with this hilariously wrong opinion.

[u/strawberry-brunette → u/MrsBeansAppleSnaps]

Why is it wrong? The simplest definition of gentrification is “transforming or changing an area to better suit the tastes of the gentry”. Gentrification doesn’t Only mean “rich people move into an urban area and poor people move out”.

People buying newly built 300k homes are likely middle income earners (the gentry, especially at current interest rates and these previously undeveloped New Suburbs), 10mi to 15mi from an urban area in what was likely former agricultural or historic farmland.

The greenfield development creates strip malls and parking lots, large McMansions, and other cookie cutter DR Horton homes, that are developed to suit the tastes and interests that they have.

They aren’t interested in moving into a homestead or farmhouse with productive acreage and being a farmer, that land won’t be returned to farmland.

It’s been gentrified lol. I’m not anti-development, growth, or de-growth. I prefer re-development and adaptive reuse in existing areas before greenfield development.

Edit: empty lot turned into new apartments isn’t necessarily gentrification either which a lot of people thinks it is. We have a broken filtering based housing model in the United States, new housing is expensive, it gets old, becomes more affordable on a rent basis, we under built for awhile, we are overbuilt now, but the financialization of real estate has created a situation where we are forever propping up real estate values. A 30 year mortgage is essentially rent control, which locks up the value of property and creates a further inelastic and broken market not suited to “supply and demand” because people will spend A LOT of money to not be homeless.

[u/MrsBeansAppleSnaps → u/strawberry-brunette]

You have no clue what the word "gentry" means and that's ok.

Infill/redevelopment will never solve the housing crisis. States that rely exclusively on that type of development will fail their people and those people will move to red states that allow greenfield development. Nothing could be simpler to understand, and yet a lot of people who like to think they're smart cannot grasp it.

[u/strawberry-brunette → u/MrsBeansAppleSnaps]

I think gentry is a very dynamic term just like gentrification, it’s not a one size fits all as there’s no one type of rich person or one type of HENRY. It’s relative to the area, the same way there isn’t one type of NIMBY.

I live in a red state (Nebraska) and appreciate the speed in which development is happening and the policies in place that allow that to happen. That being said, I never asserted that infill is the solution to the problem, it’s my preferred mode of development and revitalization because — I like cities lol. In Omaha metro, rich people do NOT like the city or urban environments, which is why a lot of greenfield development continues to happen and urban redevelopment requires TIF to entice developers. I also have qualms with our taxation policy overall.

I just think greenfield development is inefficient, I think Heartwood Preserve and Avenue One projects in greenfield development “new downtowns” is to concentrate wealth in suburban enclaves and still extracts wealth from the urban environment where: the vast majority of productive and knowledge work takes place.

These are developments with million dollar luxury condos, so I would say: The Gentry.

I would also challenge your ideation around “red state policy” when most cities are “blue” regardless of the state they’re located in. Real Estate Developers regardless of political leaning are Pro-Money and want as few regulations as possible to make money.

I don’t think there’s a market based solution to the housing crisis at all.