February 5, 20232 yr Author Yes, a lot. There's a couple of new high rises in my wife's hometown of Cherkasy, which is about the population of Akron. A few I saw in Dnipro (has about 1 million people), but not many in historic central Lviv although they're building a lot more just outside of the core. But the number of new and under-construction high-rises in Kyiv was mind-blowing -- reminiscent of Toronto. Same with Warsaw which also has lots of new high-rises, mostly residential. I'm often surprised at how many for-sale units there are but some people (not companies or big-time real estate investors) buy them and rent them out monthly or as AirBnB's. BTW, these are all privately owned buildings but all on publicly owned land. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
February 5, 20232 yr 12 minutes ago, KJP said: Yes, a lot. There's a couple of new high rises in my wife's hometown of Cherkasy, which is about the population of Akron. A few I saw in Dnipro (has about 1 million people), but not many in historic central Lviv although they're building a lot more just outside of the core. But the number of new and under-construction high-rises in Kyiv was mind-blowing -- reminiscent of Toronto. Same with Warsaw which also has lots of new high-rises, mostly residential. I'm often surprised at how many for-sale units there are but some people (not companies or big-time real estate investors) buy them and rent them out monthly or as AirBnB's. BTW, these are all privately owned buildings but all on publicly owned land. Ive seen photos of Warsaw and the massive construction there, but not other cities. I was looking for a temporary position in Eastern Europe last year, and looked at some midsized cities in Hungary, Czech Republic and Romania on Google maps - but I was mostly looking at central cities, and not at the suburban new housing. I suppose it has been 30 years since the fall of communism, and a lot of new housing had to be built since then. I wonder if the soviet-era full-housing policy impacts the current homeownership trends in that part of the world. A student of mine from Uzbekistan had to return a few years ago for several months to help her mother find a new place to live - the apartment she'd lived in since the 1980s was purchased, and she was kicked out - and new housing was quite expensive in Tashkent. I spent a couple months in Central Asia about 20 years ago, and at that them there was a lot of construction in Alma-Aty, and Kazakhstan in genera - lots of Texas oil money there at the time - but very little outside that capital, and very little in Uzbekistan.
February 5, 20232 yr 10 hours ago, KJP said: Yes, a lot. There's a couple of new high rises in my wife's hometown of Cherkasy, which is about the population of Akron. A few I saw in Dnipro (has about 1 million people), but not many in historic central Lviv although they're building a lot more just outside of the core. But the number of new and under-construction high-rises in Kyiv was mind-blowing -- reminiscent of Toronto. Same with Warsaw which also has lots of new high-rises, mostly residential. I'm often surprised at how many for-sale units there are but some people (not companies or big-time real estate investors) buy them and rent them out monthly or as AirBnB's. BTW, these are all privately owned buildings but all on publicly owned land. I travel(ed) extensively in Ukraine, the former Eastern Block and even deep in Russia and would agree with this assessment. As incomes have risen there is a demand for gleaming new towers, just like anywhere else in the world. These tend to be in the major and second tier cities. Further to @westerninterloper's question, the vast majority of the populations still live in Soviet era housing, just due to the sheer numbers. If you travel the villiages of Russia, like those along the Moscow-St Petersburg high speed rail line, you would even see that a large swath of population still live in PRE-Soviet era housing.
February 5, 20232 yr Author I originally posted a response here but I moved it over to the Ukraine thread to keep this discussion on topic. See the post here... "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
April 8, 20232 yr Author The average cost of a new car is $50,000 and the average monthly car payment is more than $700. Not surprising that more parking lots are going bye-bye. Ohio's largest cities what have been vandalized with surface parking lots for 70 years are finally seeing them get reduced in number by development. How parking lots across the U.S. are being turned into housing https://www.fastcompany.com/90876627/how-parking-lots-across-the-u-s-are-being-turned-into-housing "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
April 12, 20232 yr The transformation of Olde Towne East has been remarkable, and even controversial. But seeing these kinds of places restored is one of the bright spots of the last 30 years. p.s. is anyone on here a structural engineer? https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/703-Franklin-Ave-Columbus-OH-43205/33826445_zpid/
April 12, 20232 yr 30 minutes ago, surfohio said: The transformation of Olde Towne East has been remarkable, and even controversial. But seeing these kinds of places restored is one of the bright spots of the last 30 years. p.s. is anyone on here a structural engineer? https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/703-Franklin-Ave-Columbus-OH-43205/33826445_zpid/ Wow, I've never seen such flattering photography of a house in such terrible condition!
April 14, 20232 yr The Cincinnati Port Authority, aka The Port, is a bunch of idiots: https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2023/04/10/port-cares-update.html?cx_testId=40&cx_testVariant=cx_6&cx_artPos=9 The Port gathered a bunch of attention last year for keeping those mean 'ol NYC landlords out of Cincinnati, but gets completely burned on its attempt to fix-and-flip the homes.
April 17, 20232 yr On 4/12/2023 at 10:00 AM, surfohio said: The transformation of Olde Towne East has been remarkable, and even controversial. But seeing these kinds of places restored is one of the bright spots of the last 30 years. p.s. is anyone on here a structural engineer? https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/703-Franklin-Ave-Columbus-OH-43205/33826445_zpid/ I would love to be able to purchase this house. It needs a ton of work for sure, but is in a great area and would look amazing properly renovated
April 17, 20232 yr 3 hours ago, VintageLife said: I would love to be able to purchase this house. It needs a ton of work for sure, but is in a great area and would look amazing properly renovated You can look at 750 Franklin and see how it would look-the house is identical.
April 17, 20232 yr 11 minutes ago, Toddguy said: You can look at 750 Franklin and see how it would look-the house is identical. Pretty sure it sold anyway and I don’t have multiple hundreds of thousands to fix it ha
April 19, 20232 yr Author "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
May 13, 20232 yr NYC Rent Control hi-jinks: https://nypost.com/2023/05/13/oregon-couple-squats-in-million-dollar-central-park-pad-after-tenant-dies/
May 22, 20232 yr $5 million LA mansion tax in effect: Immediately south of Pacific Palisades in Santa Monica...a price you're never going to see again in LA:
June 28, 20231 yr Author "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
June 29, 20231 yr Columbus Ranked #7 in the May Realtor.com stats/report... May 2023 Hottest Housing Markets
July 9, 20231 yr Look at this article feigning sympathy for Hollywood writers who can't afford houses: https://theankler.com/p/hollywoods-real-estate-romance-is It's like, quit acting like you're victims. Nobody forced you to enter a risky profession. Go out and get real jobs if you want to qualify to buy a house.
July 9, 20231 yr 7 hours ago, Lazarus said: Look at this article feigning sympathy for Hollywood writers who can't afford houses: https://theankler.com/p/hollywoods-real-estate-romance-is It's like, quit acting like you're victims. Nobody forced you to enter a risky profession. Go out and get real jobs if you want to qualify to buy a house. What a garbage take. "Go out and get real jobs" is a statement only a self-righteous person says. Writers in Hollywood are important to the creation of what many, myself included, consider an art form. The world would be less enjoyable without them. Beyond that, what exactly do you consider a "real job" here? My partner and I have a combined income 4x the median household income of Greater LA and when I've looked at real estate there out of curiosity (recently looked due to a job offer that would require me moving coasts) I came to the conclusion that there's next to nothing we can afford without being house poor or living in some far flung place out in the desert. For the average person in LA, there's nothing affordable. It's not just writers. Boiling the housing crisis down to "go get a real job" doesn't even come close to actually providing a solution.
July 9, 20231 yr Yeah the real story here shouldn’t be “we’re Hollywood writers, please feel bad for us.” it’s that a respectable career isn’t enough to afford a house, you need two jobs. The housing market in the US is a disaster. This article is really about a very valid concern that millennials get told is because they buy avocado toast.
July 10, 20231 yr 16 hours ago, jmicha said: What a garbage take. "Go out and get real jobs" is a statement only a self-righteous person says. Writers in Hollywood are important to the creation of what many, myself included, consider an art form. The world would be less enjoyable without them. City sanitation workers are W-2 and earn steady paychecks. 1099 people do not earn steady paychecks. The banks and the IRS do not care what you do to earn those 1099 checks, and neither should anyone else. Being a writer, journalist, artist, musician, etc., doesn't make you a special person who is exempt from probability & statistics. Are we going to force banks to sell mortgages to all streaky earners? If so, mortgages must become like student loans - no way to walk away from your obligation. Live in denial but eventually get your social security garnished. 16 hours ago, jmicha said: For the average person in LA, there's nothing affordable. It's not just writers. Boiling the housing crisis down to "go get a real job" doesn't even come close to actually providing a solution. The solution is to live with relatives/roommates and/or avoid any expensive U.S. metro area.
July 10, 20231 yr 7 hours ago, Lazarus said: Are we going to force banks to sell mortgages to all streaky earners? If so, mortgages must become like student loans - no way to walk away from your obligation. Live in denial but eventually get your social security garnished. As a "streaky earner" I can sympathize with them in this regard. I can make more than enough to qualify for a house in Cleveland in one summer, and show it for 10 years, but still I have a hard time getting a mortgage. The underwriters are spreadsheet people that have to see that income spread over 12 months consistently, otherwise they just push it to the side. It's so bad that my wife and I bought a couple investment properties and decided to leave me off the process because she could qualify by herself and including me could very well lead to a rate increase while we fight with the mortgage people. If there was one law I could sympathize with it would allow 1099 earners to lock in a rate while they wait for the banks to do their thing...
July 10, 20231 yr 8 hours ago, Lazarus said: Are we going to force banks to sell mortgages to all streaky earners? If so, mortgages must become like student loans - no way to walk away from your obligation. Live in denial but eventually get your social security garnished. While I'm not in favor of forcing banks to give mortgages to anyone that they don't want to (since that often ends badly for both the bank and the borrower), there are a lot more people out there with seasonal income than just elite creatives. In fact, if anything, that's just a high-profile, easy-to-roll-your-eyes-at tiny distraction in the larger universe of agricultural, construction, landscaping, utility, and many other hourly wage jobs--even ones with good hourly wages--that are inconsistent over time. Though I think something is getting left out here because, at least in this area, many such workers do get mortgages still. Maybe they're getting them with spouses. I haven't delved too deep into the stats even for this area, let alone LA or any expensive coastal metro.
July 10, 20231 yr 1 hour ago, Cleburger said: If there was one law I could sympathize with it would allow 1099 earners to lock in a rate while they wait for the banks to do their thing... 18 minutes ago, Gramarye said: While I'm not in favor of forcing banks to give mortgages to anyone that they don't want to (since that often ends badly for both the bank and the borrower) On 7/9/2023 at 8:10 AM, jmicha said: What a garbage take. "Go out and get real jobs" is a statement only a self-righteous person says. Writers in Hollywood are important to the creation of what many, myself included, consider an art form. The world would be less enjoyable without them. Fannie/Freddie mortgages are designed to cater to W2 employees for many reasons. 1) as @Lazarus properly points out, the risk of having income that is not steady significantly increases your default risk. If you have two different borrowers that earn $100k per year, and borrower 1 earns his money over a 6 month period while borrower 2 is spread out over the course of an entire year, it is much safer from a lending perspective to loan to the individual who earns his money over the course of 12 months instead of 6 months. Why? Because there is always the temptation that the other money is mismanaged. Statistics show that it is a higher risk. 2) Buying a house on a Fannie/Freddie loan is a program that is designed to cater to the middle class. The one thing that essentially the middle class borrower has is W2 income. Super wealthy borrowers typically make most of their income through 1099 or K-1. Middle class and upper middle class borrowers (to which the conventional loan program is designed) tend to have W2 income. This is one of the reasons why W2 income is important. You can still get a home loan as a 1099 or K-1 however, it takes much much longer, there is a lot more scrutiny involved and it is harder to qualify. However, if you fall into this category and you want to buy a house and have the income to afford it but cannot qualify for a conventional loan, there are other types of loans you can use to purchase the property, you just need to get creative (which should be no problem for the creative class).
July 10, 20231 yr 8 hours ago, Lazarus said: City sanitation workers are W-2 and earn steady paychecks. 1099 people do not earn steady paychecks. The banks and the IRS do not care what you do to earn those 1099 checks, and neither should anyone else. Being a writer, journalist, artist, musician, etc., doesn't make you a special person who is exempt from probability & statistics. Are we going to force banks to sell mortgages to all streaky earners? If so, mortgages must become like student loans - no way to walk away from your obligation. Live in denial but eventually get your social security garnished. The solution is to live with relatives/roommates and/or avoid any expensive U.S. metro area. So you just have a general disdain for writers, journalists, and artists? What is the point here? Did you have a novel rejected by multiple publishers? A failed screenplay? Is it just that you’re not very good at drawing?
July 10, 20231 yr 22 minutes ago, bumsquare said: So you just have a general disdain for writers, journalists, and artists? What is the point here? Did you have a novel rejected by multiple publishers? A failed screenplay? Is it just that you’re not very good at drawing? Considering @Lazarus is a published author, I highly doubt he has a distain for creatives I think the bigger point that he makes is that life is full of tradeoffs. We cannot always have the big house and great job doing what we love all at the same time. Sometimes it takes time to get there. Sometimes people have to decide that having a good quality of life in the Midwest may be better than a paycheck as a struggling screenwriter on the West Coast. If you want to be a screenwriter in California, that is fine, but recognize that it is harder to get a house and the sacrifices you give up in doing so. If you choose to stay in the Midwest because your desire to own a 3 bedroom cape cod is more than your passion for writing movies, then your screenwriting passion may need to be sacrificed. As the saying goes, "you can have whatever your want in life, just not everything all at once"
July 10, 20231 yr 6 minutes ago, Brutus_buckeye said: Considering @Lazarus is a published author, I highly doubt he has a distain for creatives I think the bigger point that he makes is that life is full of tradeoffs. We cannot always have the big house and great job doing what we love all at the same time. Sometimes it takes time to get there. Sometimes people have to decide that having a good quality of life in the Midwest may be better than a paycheck as a struggling screenwriter on the West Coast. If you want to be a screenwriter in California, that is fine, but recognize that it is harder to get a house and the sacrifices you give up in doing so. If you choose to stay in the Midwest because your desire to own a 3 bedroom cape cod is more than your passion for writing movies, then your screenwriting passion may need to be sacrificed. As the saying goes, "you can have whatever your want in life, just not everything all at once" Why wouldn’t the solution be “let’s figure out a way to house people who work in Los Angeles”? Good for Lazarus that he can write his Pat Buchanan fan fiction anywhere, but having a legitimate job and being unable to get housing is not a matter of life choices.
July 10, 20231 yr 31 minutes ago, bumsquare said: but having a legitimate job and being unable to get housing is not a matter of life choices. I hate to break it to you, but yes it is a matter of life choices. It is a matter of supply and demand. Right now, there is a shortage of housing, especially in Southern California where affordable housing is at a premium. Certainly, government could enact less restrictive housing policies to help encourage development and increase the supply, but that will typically start with rental housing and it will take a while to trickle down and make the price of purchasing a home there more affordable. Even then, there is only so much that can be done (after all, they are not making more land close to the city or studios). So that leaves the aspiring screen writer who can get a good paying job in LA to decide if it is worth it to go out there or if their lifestyle in the Midwest is better. Yes, they make less money, and yes they may not be able to follow their dream as easily, but they have to decide what is most important to them at this time in their life. There is no right to everything you want when you want it. That applies to housing too. Many people decide that the tradeoffs of being a screenwriter in LA is just not worth the hassle and they find a comparable job doing something else in another market. That is rational and that is normal. It is up to the individual to figure out what is most important to them, it is not the worlds job to make things easy for you.
July 10, 20231 yr Republicans try to make every job that isn't working in healthcare, a warehouse or in the skilled trades sound like a "fantasy job".
July 10, 20231 yr 40 minutes ago, GCrites said: Republicans try to make every job that isn't working in healthcare, a warehouse or in the skilled trades sound like a "fantasy job". Who said anything about Republicans here? California is legendarily overregulated, and of course governed almost entirely by Democrats--particularly of one particular strain of the party, one that is very friendly to NIMBYism in the name of quality of life (which also coincidentally has the effect of driving up residential prices). Los Angeles is bad and San Francisco is worse. There should be 100,000+ more units of housing there. The market demand is easily there. Heck, in many of those cities, you can't even build luxury housing in any significant quantity anymore, let alone entry-level. I 100% agree with @bumsquare and @10albersa that the housing market in Los Angeles is a total excrement exhibition. But don't you think it's a little bit of a stretch to blame that on Republicans? It's a blue city in a blue state in a country that currently has a blue president. Republicans have basically zero control over any aspect of the LA housing market. Heck, there are more Democrats than Republicans even in Orange County now.
July 10, 20231 yr 23 minutes ago, Gramarye said: Heck, in many of those cities, you can't even build luxury housing in any significant quantity anymore, let alone entry-level. Also, part of the problem is that old small "starter" homes are often torn down and replaced by much larger "forever" homes. This happens automatically in expensive areas but it's being motivated on a huge scale in Nashville thanks to the zoning changes enacted around 2010. In place of the original single 1,100 sq foot house on a 50x150 lot, they now often have four 2,500 sq foot houses in that same area. Instead of one $200k house, there are now four $600k houses.
July 10, 20231 yr 4 minutes ago, Lazarus said: Also, part of the problem is that old small "starter" homes are often torn down and replaced by much larger "forever" homes. This happens automatically in expensive areas but it's being motivated on a huge scale in Nashville thanks to the zoning changes enacted around 2010. In place of the original single 1,100 sq foot house on a 50x150 lot, they now often have four 2,500 sq foot houses in that same area. Instead of one $200k house, there are now four $600k houses. Likely true--I don't know Nashville all that well but that fits with what I've seen, and others have seen, elsewhere. But I think this is why a lot of people are disagreeing with you, though. No 22-year-old brand new college graduate is responsible for whatever choices resulted in that lunacy. Those decisions were made by powerful people--generally large and entrenched coalitions of them, in fact. Coalitions that will definitely not include that brand-new screenwriter, or even brand-new CPA or engineer or IT guy.
July 10, 20231 yr 5 hours ago, Gramarye said: While I'm not in favor of forcing banks to give mortgages to anyone that they don't want to (since that often ends badly for both the bank and the borrower), p Understatement. We should have learned that from the "excrement exhibition" (I love that about as much as "airborne fornicant") that was the mid 2000s.
July 10, 20231 yr 51 minutes ago, Gramarye said: Who said anything about Republicans here? California is legendarily overregulated, and of course governed almost entirely by Democrats--particularly of one particular strain of the party, one that is very friendly to NIMBYism in the name of quality of life (which also coincidentally has the effect of driving up residential prices). Los Angeles is bad and San Francisco is worse. There should be 100,000+ more units of housing there. The market demand is easily there. Heck, in many of those cities, you can't even build luxury housing in any significant quantity anymore, let alone entry-level. I 100% agree with @bumsquare and @10albersa that the housing market in Los Angeles is a total excrement exhibition. But don't you think it's a little bit of a stretch to blame that on Republicans? It's a blue city in a blue state in a country that currently has a blue president. Republicans have basically zero control over any aspect of the LA housing market. Heck, there are more Democrats than Republicans even in Orange County now. Today's housing shortage is largely due to the 2008 financial crisis scaring banks away from any speculative building, thereby forcing developers to build with cash. Without any leverage the multiplication effect of developing with leverage becomes unavailable. In addition, all the layoffs in the building trades that lingered for years afterward drove people away from considering the skilled trades as a profession which of course led to today's shortages in skilled labor. The fantasy of zero regulation turned into zero build.
July 10, 20231 yr 1 minute ago, GCrites said: Today's housing shortage is largely due to the 2008 financial crisis scaring banks away from any speculative building, thereby forcing developers to build with cash. Without any leverage the multiplication effect of developing with leverage becomes unavailable. In addition, all the layoffs in the building trades that lingered for years afterward drove people away from considering the skilled trades as a profession which of course led to today's shortages in skilled labor. The fantasy of zero regulation turned into zero build. Actually, an unintended consequence (and probably the only positive one) of the mortgage crisis is that supply outpaced demand in most states, which has really helped ease what would be an even worse housing shortage
July 10, 20231 yr Honestly banks could have gotten away with continuing to lend for speculative SFH in the most desirable, growing areas such as LA, NYC tri-state and Seattle while giving sprawl-but-no-growth areas the break that they needed.
July 10, 20231 yr 8 minutes ago, YABO713 said: Actually, an unintended consequence (and probably the only positive one) of the mortgage crisis is that supply outpaced demand in most states, which has really helped ease what would be an even worse housing shortage Indeed it did... until about 2015 and demand returned while banks kept their doors locked. Some markets were already undersupplied at that time while others were still lagging.
July 11, 20231 yr 10 hours ago, YABO713 said: Actually, an unintended consequence (and probably the only positive one) of the mortgage crisis is that supply outpaced demand in most states, which has really helped ease what would be an even worse housing shortage Excess supply is what caused so many city neighborhoods to fall into decline. We're seeing most cities roar back to life because speculative suburban development pretty much disappeared. It's as if all cities enacted an urban growth boundary.
July 11, 20231 yr 4 hours ago, Lazarus said: Excess supply is what caused so many city neighborhoods to fall into decline. We're seeing most cities roar back to life because speculative suburban development pretty much disappeared. It's as if all cities enacted an urban growth boundary. Those of us who have opposed "urban growth boundaries" as overregulation destined to have negative consequences have long said this would happen eventually.
July 11, 20231 yr 3 hours ago, E Rocc said: Those of us who have opposed "urban growth boundaries" as overregulation destined to have negative consequences have long said this would happen eventually. It actually works in a slow-growth situation, like Lexington, KY, which enacted the first urban growth boundary (back in 1960 or so). They also successfully kept the interstate highways miles away from the downtown and oldest neighborhoods. But no urbanists talk about Lexington, KY because they only talk about the same handful of places, decade after decade. More often, there are de facto urban growth boundaries. The most obvious is a body of water or hills/mountains. Less obvious is a subtle watershed transition that limits sewers. Dallas and Houston and Atlanta are able to expand, more or less, in all directions, which has helped keep housing costs relatively low in those places as opposed to those that are hemmed-in by geographic features like Los Angeles (although LA had to get truly huge - 10 million + - before it started flirting with its limitations).
July 11, 20231 yr 3 minutes ago, Lazarus said: It actually works in a slow-growth situation, like Lexington, KY, which enacted the first urban growth boundary (back in 1960 or so). They also successfully kept the interstate highways miles away from the downtown and oldest neighborhoods. But no urbanists talk about Lexington, KY because they only talk about the same handful of places, decade after decade. More often, there are de facto urban growth boundaries. The most obvious is a body of water or hills/mountains. Less obvious is a subtle watershed transition that limits sewers. I was just wondering if the Cleveland Metroparks are technically urban growth boundaries.
July 11, 20231 yr Author 2 minutes ago, surfohio said: I was just wondering if the Cleveland Metroparks are technically urban growth boundaries. Maybe the Chagrin River valley is. But most of the Metroparks can be quickly and easily crossed on multiple high-capacity roads and some interstate highways, which only supports the sprawl. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
July 11, 20231 yr 7 hours ago, Lazarus said: Excess supply is what caused so many city neighborhoods to fall into decline. We're seeing most cities roar back to life because speculative suburban development pretty much disappeared. It's as if all cities enacted an urban growth boundary. It is interesting to see how many of the suburban cities are changing their master plan to include the option for higher density housing closer to the town center. I know Mason just updated their plan to encourage higher density housing near the town center to encourage a walkable community. I wonder if this will blunt some of the growth in cities in Ohio when you create a similar product out in the burbs. WIth remote work, there is less of a need to be close to the urban core for jobs.
July 11, 20231 yr 2 minutes ago, KJP said: Maybe the Chagrin River valley is. But most of the Metroparks can be quickly and easily crossed on multiple high-capacity roads and some interstate highways, which only supports the sprawl. They definitely act as a line of delineation separating Cleveland and Akron IMO
July 11, 20231 yr 52 minutes ago, Brutus_buckeye said: It is interesting to see how many of the suburban cities are changing their master plan to include the option for higher density housing closer to the town center. I know Mason just updated their plan to encourage higher density housing near the town center to encourage a walkable community. I wonder if this will blunt some of the growth in cities in Ohio when you create a similar product out in the burbs. WIth remote work, there is less of a need to be close to the urban core for jobs. I don't think that any suburb of Cincinnati has the potential to truly densify to the scale where people in that suburb no longer need a car. The new urbanist developments aren't anywhere close to big enough - Blue Ash Summit Park, Union Center in West Chester, etc., aren't "real" places, even after the addition of many apartments and stores.
July 11, 20231 yr 1 hour ago, Brutus_buckeye said: 1 hour ago, KJP said: Maybe the Chagrin River valley is. But most of the Metroparks can be quickly and easily crossed on multiple high-capacity roads and some interstate highways, which only supports the sprawl. They definitely act as a line of delineation separating Cleveland and Akron IMO You might be thinking of the national park (CVNP), which straddles the Cuyahoga-Summit County line. I don't think there's any metropark, whether Summit County Metroparks or Cleveland Metroparks, that we'd recognize as being any kind of delineation boundary like you're suggesting. 19 hours ago, GCrites said: Today's housing shortage is largely due to the 2008 financial crisis scaring banks away from any speculative building, thereby forcing developers to build with cash. Without any leverage the multiplication effect of developing with leverage becomes unavailable. In addition, all the layoffs in the building trades that lingered for years afterward drove people away from considering the skilled trades as a profession which of course led to today's shortages in skilled labor. The fantasy of zero regulation turned into zero build. How many developers are really building with cash? Banks might insist on more equity in a given deal now than they used to, and of course the real kicker is that interest rates have gone up (people don't think the difference between 4.5% and 6.5% is a lot, but it's huge given the way amortization schedules work), so a lot of theoretical deals aren't practically viable anymore. But construction financing is still very much a thing.
July 11, 20231 yr Only quite recently did that return for the product I'm talking about -- speculative SFH specifically (Daffy Duck voice). Other categories vary significantly. For example lending for speculative urban multifamily was still rocking in Columbus even in 2010. And right now office lending is way down.
July 11, 20231 yr 2 hours ago, surfohio said: I was just wondering if the Cleveland Metroparks are technically urban growth boundaries. Not to the south. Akron's pull led to what I call the "borderlands" suburbs, low to medium density suburbanization that includes Walton HIlls, which began growing in the 1950s.
July 11, 20231 yr 1 hour ago, Brutus_buckeye said: They definitely act as a line of delineation separating Cleveland and Akron IMO There is no such line. The two were merged at least by the 80s with the growth of places like Twinsburg and Macedonia.
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