[mjmahone17]

There is absolutely not an oversupply of apartments in my city, nor in Seattle proper. it should be non-controversial to let the market supply as many apartments in the locations people want to be as people are willing to rent. Especially any regulatory changes that enable family sized apartments to be built at relatively lower cost should be encouraged.

Even if there were an “oversupply”, if someone could build new apartment buildings at 50% the cost with larger, safer, more comfortable units than most apartments nearby, it would drive rents down for existing buildings while still allowing the developer to make a profit. We should be enabling these opportunities as much as possible.

[tempsy]

How is there not an oversupply of rentals in Seattle? I pulled up Zillow Rentals around downtown and there's a comical number of listings available.

If you can rent a new construction 1 bed for under $2k a month in a jobs center there is no apartment shortage in your city.

[Aloisius]

> I pulled up Zillow Rentals around downtown and there's a comical number of listings available.

And how does that tell you that supply exceeds demand?

Even when there's a housing undersupply, units will still be available at any given moment. It's not like people stop dying, moving out or building altogether.

To determine oversupply, you need to look at something that also tells you demand as well. Like, what's the average time available units are on the market? What's the vacancy rate look like?

[BobaFloutist]

Conventional wisdom is for housing to be "affordable" it needs to be 1/3 of your income. 2000312=72000 a year. 72000/2050 = 35$/h.

Where are grocery clerks, baristas, school teachers, janitors, restaurant workers, etc supposed to live?

[tempsy]

uh roommates?