Quote:
Originally Posted by Gordo
How about just allow them to be built? Markets are actually pretty good at determining what people want for various prices. If no one wants to pay a price that is profitable for builders to build...they won't get built.
I have no interest in a micro unit, but I've got several friends that are a few years older than me with kids finishing college. They'd happily pay a bit more for a micro unit than share a 3-4 bed place with 3-4 other people (the most likely other option in prime SF/NYC/etc).
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It's kind of selfishness when you think of it... "I live in my larger house/apartment, and I can't see why anyone would want to live in those micro units therefore they should not be built. Plus it's probably going to be all drug addicts and alcoholics anyway."
I can live in a studio apartment, but a micro apartment is where I draw the line as a personal preference. However, it's going to be the only affordable housing option for many others. Why would I against them being built unless my ulterior goal would be to exclude lower income persons from my neighborhood.
Also, the market has a way of meeting the demand informally. I visited a brand new house that sold for around $700,000 in Jersey City. It was one of those Bayonne Boxes in the Heights on a quiet residential street. From the outside and per city records, this is officially a two dwelling unit with garage.
Unofficially, it was a 10 unit apartment building with two baths and two kitchens. This is because each of the four bedrooms plus den had their own own lock along with individual leases with the landlord. Each bedroom was occupied by a single person or by two people if a boyfriend/girlfriend living together.
Would you believe that that the starting rent was $1,000 a month per room?!? Absolutely insane. An investor purchased this new construction for around $700,0000 and maybe has a mortgage of 3 or $4,000 a month. The investor than subdivides all the rooms and hires a management company, which is collecting around $10,000 a month from rents. That's a pretty good hustle. And I bet this is happening in cities throughout America where the rent for a normal 1 bedroom is too damn high.
But if you're working minimum wage trying to survive, $500 a month split with a boyfriend/girlfriend for economic reasons becomes one affordable housing. Whether communities with hot real estate markets want to allow micro housing or not, the reality is it's already there hidden in plain sight.