Making the Problem Worse The statewide urban growth boundary is driving housing prices to San Francisco Bay Area heights. But Oregon has a solution, increase demand! This so utterly misunderstands the problem, which is a supply side issue. The urban growth boundary reduces the supply of housing that people want. The result is lots of people living in conditions they do not like, and quickly rising housing prices. More below. The state has decided the solution to high housing prices is first time home buyer assistance, meaning an increase in demand.
But since demand is already high, and is the driver behind the highly inflated home prices, This will only increase prices. This is mental illness. The problem is supply, if the desire is affordable housing, meaning lower prices, the way to achieve that goal is to increase supply. Let more land be used for real estate development. But this is not sufficient, only the elimination of the urban growth boundary will resolve this problem. If left in place, it will eventually cause problems. The authoritarian progressives love "solutions" like urban growth boundaries, and other land use planning rules, because it removes individual liberty and decision making places it in the hands of a government elite. They believe this will create a social Utopia where everything will be wonderful, traffic will be light, and controlled, people will want to ride transit, the cities will be small, and compact, the birds will sing, and the animals frolic. The reality is the opposite. Portland has terrible traffic, some of the worst in the nation, and our transit system for all of its accolades continues to decline in quality, and ridership on a per capita basis. Our housing affordability is terrible, and worsening. Rents are sky high, and people are increasingly unable to afford them. We have an endemic homeless problem. But we do have an urban growth boundary, which protects 96.5% of the land in the state which has never been developed. And, which corrals Oregonians onto 3.5% of the total land area of the state. The supporters of this nonsense then act as if opening any more land for development would have apocalyptic consequences. Sheesh. 3.5% of the land! Mental illness.
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