Multifamily housing is inherently cheaper than single-family homes because you reduce land cost and can share certain expensive utilities. Similarly, smaller homes are cheaper than larger homes. That’s the essence of the issue, as Nick has pointed out, in creating more housing. What is this prolonged argument about?
Regards, SRK Steven R. Kanner, MD Lincoln, MA From: Sara Mattes <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, October 13, 2025 3:45 PM To: Lincoln Talk <[email protected]> Cc: Nick Gardner <[email protected]>; Dr. Steven Kanner <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [LincolnTalk] Truly affordable housing . The free market principles of supply and demand, in housing, don’t work for lower income and even moderate income folks. That is why we have 40b- the stick- and the carrots of public subsidies of housing and public housing. Re-zoning, without strict demands to produce a true mix, leaves many out in the cold. The current push for rezone in MA/ “transit oriented development “ is a boom, a gift to for profit developers and a bust for low- and moderate income families. The MBTA/ rezoning stripped towns like Lincoln from enforcing existing affordability requirements and have handed a great gift to for- profit developers. Let’s keep our eye on the Mall as the die is cast. Sent from my iPad On Oct 13, 2025, at 8:13 AM, Nick Gardner <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: I think the best way to understand it is simply supply and demand. The supply for housing simply has not gone up at the same rate as demand. (1) In general, economists agree that the solution is relatively simple, build more. Ideally we'd build a good mix of housing from new single family homes, to projects with a high percentage of affordable units, to market rate "luxury" apartments. But even if we only built market rate "luxury" apartments, studies have shown that the availability of new market rate housing results in moving chains that serve to relatively quickly relieve pressure on other segments of the market (2). Happy to discuss the economics of this more if people would like, it's an area I've spent a lot of time in over the last few years. Thanks, Nick Gardner 1: https://www.bostonfed.org/publications/new-england-public-policy-center-policy-report/2025/new-englands-housing-markets-supply-and-demand-factors-affecting-housing-prices-across-the-region.aspx 2: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094119022001048#bib0015 Note: I put luxury in quotes, because a lot of the new market rate housing isn't really high end, it's just newer. The same way that a 2010 Prius is cheaper than a 2025 one, housing has some level of depreciation relative to the broader market. Any new build, with brand new appliances, updated layouts, modern amenities, is simply going to be able to charge more, even if it's not actually luxury. A lot of the "luxury" touches tend to be things like LVP flooring and basic stainless steel appliances. On Mon, Oct 13, 2025 at 12:18 AM Sara Mattes <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Trickle down economics? Sent from my iPad On Oct 12, 2025, at 8:59 PM, Nick Gardner <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > But, we need to understand what the market is seeking. The free market is usually pretty good at that. Developers tend to build properties because they will make money. > Do families want to move to a town like Lincoln to live in multistory units? Probably! But developers tend to do that sort of research before spending millions on a new development. > Many families, in order to have more of the traditional single family home, > are moving further and further out. It is not just cost, but what is seen as desirable. Can we better explore the type of units that will meet wants and needs, and not just numbers. The issue is simply that single family houses take up a lot of land, and land plus transport are the true determining factors here. I can't get a single family home in manhattan because there simply isn't the land for it. As the population of the greater Boston area goes up, there will be less and less places close to Boston that can sustain affordable single family detached homes on sizable lots. > I look at Denver that has built many, many multi-story units that are going > vacant, while families push further and further away from the city. The urban sprawl is stressing municipal services and water resources. Great thing about multi-family homes is that they put much less stress on things like water resources and municipal services than new single family home developments do. I'm not worried about vacant housing right now, given how big of a housing crisis there is in the area. Plus, new developments pay large amounts of fees and property taxes towards maintaining and upgrading aging municipal services. Simply put, there's only so much land within a decent transit or drive of Boston/Cambridge, where many people have jobs they need to get to. So this constrains how far away people will live, and we just need to build more housing. The best way to do that is to build housing across the whole spectrum. More multi-family multi-story developments, more rowhomes, more ADUs, more splitting of lots to build second homes on the lot, and more development of vacant lots. Ideally some of those units will be affordable by design, but the best path towards affordability is simply more housing, however we can get it. -Nick Gardner On Sun, Oct 12, 2025 at 8:46 PM Sara Mattes <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Yes! But, we need to understand what the market is seeking. Do families want to move to a town like Lincoln to live in multistory units? We don’t know. Many families, in order to have more of the traditional single family home, are moving further and further out. It is not just cost, but what is seen as desirable. Can we better explore the type of units that will meet wants and needs, and not just numbers. I look at Denver that has built many, many multi-story units that are going vacant, while families push further and further away from the city. The urban sprawl is stressing municipal services and water resources. How do meet desire with creativity? On Oct 12, 2025, at 6:52 PM, Nick Gardner <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Personally, sure, I wouldn't mind something like this near me. My general philosophy is that more housing is better, from the cheapest options like manufactured and mobile homes, all the way up to multi-story single family developments. More building across the spectrum is the only true way to solve the housing crisis (but much better transit would help too!). -Nick Gardner On Sun, Oct 12, 2025 at 6:41 PM Sara Mattes <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Would Lincoln entertain seeking locations for these truly affordable options? <541897041_615991624727882_3364590991054878389_n.jpg> 38' Park Model<https://www.facebook.com/share/17UXVB9fPC/> facebook.com<https://www.facebook.com/share/17UXVB9fPC/> -- The LincolnTalk mailing list. To post, send mail to [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. Browse the archives at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/private/lincoln/. Change your subscription settings at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/lincoln.
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