Episode 1725
How we can help renters that want to become homeowners in 2024
Housing is getting harder and harder in many parts of the US to afford. With interest rates higher than in decades and prices for housing skyrocketing we are seeing younger generations (and everyone else) have HUGE roadblocks to homeownership. There is a lot of common sense things we can do to make this more affordable for people to get into owning a home. Lets take a look at what we need to change.
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Information given on the Around the House Show should not be considered construction or design advice for your specific project, nor is it intended to replace consulting at your home or jobsite by a building professional. The views and opinions expressed by those interviewed on the podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Around the House Show.
Mentioned in this episode:
A new kind of decking and siding from Millboard
For more information about the latest in decking and cladding head to https://www.millboard.com/
My Healthy Home Summit April 22-28th 2024 FREE LINK
For more information and to register for FREE: https://healthyhome.byhealthmeans.com/?idev_id=33788
Baldwin Hardware
Transcript
[00:00:26] Eric Goranson: So that way they can live the American dream here in the United States. We've been talking about land prices. Building costs. And now here in this segment, I wanted to talk one of the biggest ones, and that's government regulations. And this is where, through the world of good intentions, we have really caused some issues.
[:[00:01:09] Eric Goranson: com. And if you've got a home improvement question that you need help with, call our helpline at 8 3 3 2 3 9 41 44 that number 8 3 3 2 3 9 4 1 4 4. If I'm not in the studio. Don't worry. Leave a message and I will call you back and make sure you got your voicemail options there ready so I can leave you a message.
[:[00:01:52] Eric Goranson: Of course, I live out here on the West coast. Where things are crazy expensive compared to the Midwest and other places [00:02:00] in the country. I know the Northeast has some of the same problems as we do, but up here in Oregon, I tell you what prices keep going through the roof, which is great as a property owner.
[:[00:02:30] Eric Goranson: And so I thought today, let's talk about this. We're not going to get into politics. I try to keep this politics free, but some of this is just what it is. And so I'm going to call the spade when I see it here today, but I'm not trying to get into some crazy political debate of right versus left and the rest of that.
[:[00:03:04] Eric Goranson: You can head over to around the house online and send me a message. But one of the things that we've got a problem with is our urban growth boundaries. And what these are is these are good intentions, shall we say, to keep urban sprawl from going out. And taking out farmland and forests. And that's where the issue lies, because what happens is with these urban growth boundaries, it artificially raises the price of lots in the area.
[:[00:04:02] Eric Goranson: But when they have these government controls, it artificially heightens that price. And so, instead of paying 50, 000 for a lot, you're paying 150, 000 or 200, 000 for a lot. And so these things really start to add to this. Now, I don't want to see us going down a mowing down protected forest and stuff to put houses in, but at the same time, we can't have people living on the streets either.
[:[00:04:56] Eric Goranson: But I want to make sure that we sit here and [00:05:00] think about zoning because zoning is a big issue What we're seeing now is there are all these new really great affordable options as far as Factory built housing and what we've seen is cities and counties Basically outlaw those because they haven't updated their codes and stuff Since the 1970s, eighties people were worried about coming in and putting a single wide just right next to their million dollar house.
[:[00:05:49] Eric Goranson: And if you want to go back and take a listen to an episode, I interviewed my friends over at champion homes here a couple months ago, and we talked about this, but in a nutshell, what we're seeing [00:06:00] is you can see these homes being built in a dry, secure area. There's no jobsite materials getting stolen.
[:[00:06:29] Eric Goranson: So it's a very efficient way of building and very safe. So what you're seeing is that we have made those. As far as zoning go, we have made it. So people can't put those on a lot. And I think this is really where our zoning issues are. Developers out there are going to get into the point right now where it is more cost efficient for them.
[:[00:07:16] Eric Goranson: They show up 80 percent done. And I tell you what, when this is done, you drive down suburbia here and there's two car garages on the front. Yeah. There is no way to tell that this is a manufactured site versus site built home community. And I think that's a really big deal. And quite frankly, it's built better.
[:[00:07:58] Eric Goranson: And it's a heck of a lot [00:08:00] nicer than the spec homes being built today. That is one simple area where we could be putting homes in and saving people tons of money. And it's a zoning issue and an education issue. So I want to make sure that I would have no problem having one of those homes next door. And quite frankly, if I end up getting a retirement cabin up there for Julie and I up in the wild mountains, like I wouldn't mind doing one day, that's exactly how I'm going to do it because it makes good financial sense.
[:[00:08:56] Eric Goranson: That are empty and converting them into affordable housing. [00:09:00] And if that would create a whole new urban core in areas, I was down a great example here, and I'm going to use my city as an example, because. This is what's happened on the West Coast and many of these, many of these cities like this, we'll just leave it at this, but when you're walking down through this, there's blocks of empty buildings.
[:[00:09:38] Eric Goranson: There's things that services that could go in there that would be other jobs and everything else. When we come back, we're going to be talking about how we create more affordable housing and fix this problem just as soon as Around the House returns. Don't go anywhere.[00:10:00]
[:[00:10:26] Eric Goranson: com. And I always message you back. So make sure and say hello over there. I always love to see. Where you guys are across the country. And if you're listening to the podcast on any one of the different podcast players, I'd love to get a review out of you guys. Five stars helps us spread the word out there to get this information out to other people that could use the help.
[:[00:11:13] Eric Goranson: It is expensive out there for many people and for everybody, I don't care who it is out there. Most of the people out there are struggling, especially with our interest rates. Being as high getting into homes. And so let's do an episode on this and see if we can really help people think about what the causes are and what we can do to change that.
[:[00:11:50] Eric Goranson: Now, one of the caveats with that I want to make sure we're doing, and this is something that many cities struggle with, is we've got to, if you're going to do that, you've got to create [00:12:00] parking for people as well if it's not already there. One of the biggest, hardest issues for families out there is if you've got a couple with a couple kids out there, you can't rely on them to get, especially in some of these cities with the crime problems that we have to get in there and jump on mass transit to be taking the groceries home with two kids and handfuls of groceries on mass transit.
[:[00:12:48] Eric Goranson: Why don't you build a safer city so people don't have to travel to do that. And if you can make these more neighborhood friendly, you're going to have a lot better situation where somebody in a high [00:13:00] rise can jump down the elevator, walk two blocks, have the neighbors, watch the kids for 30 minutes, go shopping and come back.
[:[00:13:33] Eric Goranson: You can go get some groceries. You can go get some stuff. So it's a different model than we in these midsides and smaller cities. So I think that's where we really have some issues. Now, building costs is one of the biggest things we were talking about land. And I want to talk about what the building costs are.
[:[00:14:15] Eric Goranson: So they have to get some kind of a business loan or somebody is carrying that money for them. And so what happens is that you're financing that during the six months that house is being built. So that adds to that. Second of all, I think one of the bigger problems that I see out there is pretty shoddy construction.
[:[00:15:07] Eric Goranson: And I think one, we need to hold everyone accountable. Because I love having these things inspected for the building department, but the building department is only worried about building code, which means health, safety, and welfare. That wall can be out of plum by an inch or two. And guess what? That's probably not in violation of a building code.
[:[00:15:52] Eric Goranson: But some of these big ones out there are just absolutely passing off defective stuff, which makes me nervous. I don't want to see that [00:16:00] happen to anyone. So one labor's expensive. These people out there building homes right now are rare. And that is because we took those programs out of high schools. So what happens is we've created our own problem.
[:[00:16:39] Eric Goranson: And so that's how right now electricians are making more than high school principals. And you've got plumbers. That are making more money than the high school football coach and the English teacher. So, or the nurses, just because of supply and demand. I know of electricians right now [00:17:00] that electrical companies that would pay a 20, 000 signing bonus for an electrician licensed journeyman, electrician to come work for them, sign up for a year, write you a check for 20 grand.
[:[00:17:40] Eric Goranson: And some of the ones that are doing it are creating great communities around their, around these houses. They're building great houses. You've got trained people going out there, which will keep those prices a little more reasonable. So we have created that problem by eliminating these trade classes out there.
[:[00:18:20] Eric Goranson: Somebody gets pushed to go to community college. They go to college, they get their degree and go, I can't do this. I'm going to go swing a hammer someplace. Cause I really like doing and working outside. We're working in a factory or wherever they're working. And now they're paying off a student loan.
[:[00:19:08] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to the around the house show. This is where we help you with your home design tips, everything. And it's the next generation of home improvement. We've been talking today about, uh, creating affordable housing for the next generation. And some of the issues that we have out there, and I'm really trying to see if we can change the tides here a little bit and get some more affordable homes.
[:[00:19:52] Eric Goranson: And this is where through the world of good intentions, we have really caused some issues, really caused some [00:20:00] issues. And these regulations can add over a hundred thousand dollars to an average price of a house. Easy, if not more. And here's how this happens. And this is the big thing. First off, if a, I'm going to use my city as an example here that I live next to, I don't live in the city of Portland, but we'll go what they're trying to do right here.
[:[00:20:53] Eric Goranson: And I see getting rid of hazards. No problem. But the problem is you're going to have to remove that place by hand. You can't just come in there with the excavator [00:21:00] and throw it away. Now it has to get recycled. The problem is the market for recycling out there of. Old two by fours that have nails and stuff in them is not really cost prohibitive.
[:[00:21:35] Eric Goranson: To the landfill or going off to the, to the wood recycling place. And that's where we start to see that. So let's say they knock that down, they get it hauled out. Okay. You now have a lot. And now this is where this changed this last week. We had a big case that hit the Supreme court. And this is a big one that we should talk about because it could really affect how you build a house in your neighborhood.[00:22:00]
[:[00:22:26] Eric Goranson: And then immediately sued the County arguing the fee was improper. At state court sheets argued the fee was not closely connected. To or proportional to the actual impact his new residents would have on the roads. Key tests laid out by precedent in two prior Supreme court cases countered that the test does not apply because the impact fee was authorized by legislation from the county council in this case, rather than by bureaucracy.
[:[00:23:14] Eric Goranson: So we're not going to get into the whole case here, but, uh, my friends over at the NHB, where I got this information from really made an argument with this, all nine Supreme court justices agreed with justice, Amy Coney Barrett. Writing the unanimous opinion, Justice Barrett wrote, there is no basis for affordable property rights, less protection in the hands of legislators than administrators.
[:[00:24:01] Eric Goranson: So that's basically what we're seeing here. So we're going to see now these impact fees being read, a look at of what is going to be reasonable and not. So this could have significant long term impact on permitting fees for home development. And we're going to have to see what the fallout is on this, but this is something that could be huge.
[:[00:24:45] Eric Goranson: Out of people right now. So I'm excited to see how this goes. This is going to be a big one. Next up we have is energy. Our energy codes right now are getting where it's going to be hard to [00:25:00] do affordable HVAC for people's homes. Now, here's what we're seeing right now. We've got a couple of different things going on.
[:[00:25:39] Eric Goranson: But the problem that we see is the added expense of these without some massive government subsidy does not pan out. So when you're talking about making a heating and cooling system three or four times more expensive, Because it meets the current 2024 energy code or 2025 energy code. [00:26:00] These are things that are not going to come back and pay for themselves.
[:[00:26:55] Eric Goranson: That is in the best interest of these folks trying to get into affordable housing. Now, [00:27:00] the 15 or 20 bucks a month that they made save on their power bill is pretty amazing. But that's not, that's going to take a long time to do that. Now, could you put in a heat pump, water heater, or some things like that, that Really save you money in the long run.
[:[00:27:41] Eric Goranson: But they've got protected trees and things like that in there. And I love my trees. Don't get me wrong, but sometimes when a builder comes in, buys that lot in literally has to spend two years through a permitting process to take down two medium sized trees. And so [00:28:00] they can put more house on that lot to make it more affordable.
[:[00:28:28] Eric Goranson: And then they have to pay for the lawyers to go through all that just to get the permits to follow that. We come back. I've got one more segment and we're going to talk about what we can do to figure out our homeless and crime issues in our areas around our house just as soon as we return. Don't go anywhere.[00:29:00]
[:[00:29:38] Eric Goranson: Because there's nothing wrong with renting out there. But the issue is, unless you're taking that money and putting it well away. Real estate can still be one of the best investments you make out there if you play the game correctly. And I want to see everybody have that opportunity that wants to have it.
[:[00:30:25] Eric Goranson: The people that you see driving around, and I know some of you in states that don't have this issue because you guys manage it correctly. Are going, what are you talking about? But in many cities and many States out there, there are third world tent communities all around in the middle of the sidewalk, in the middle of the driveways of people's homes.
[:[00:31:05] Eric Goranson: I'd love to hear it or respect everyone's opinion, but here is mine. I think this is where we have a problem. Do we have an affordable housing problem? Yes. Are many of the people out there that are camping in those tents? Going to be fixed by affordable housing. No, they're not. And a majority of those people, and I'm going to say majority because not all by any means, but a majority of those people out there.
[:[00:31:58] Eric Goranson: This is not going to [00:32:00] go away. And the problem we're seeing here is great example here in the Pacific Northwest. You're seeing states and cities spending 40 to 60, 000 per homeless person. This living out in the streets. A year, but we're spending that year after year after year on them and they're not getting better.
[:[00:32:54] Eric Goranson: And the problem is it's not safe for the kids. It's not safe for the community, [00:33:00] but we need to get these people into some kind of a program so that we can get them help. And it's us as society need to deal with this. And our cities are not dealing with this correctly. We had some problems here where, you know, we've gotten to a point now where we do have a lot of beds.
[:[00:33:34] Eric Goranson: We need to get these people help. We need to be compassionate. We need to get them into a facility. Where they can become solid members of society and not out camping in the streets, dying from being overheated or dying from freezing to death. We need to make sure that we get these people help. And as part of this discussion, I think that's what we need to do.[00:34:00]
[:[00:34:19] Eric Goranson: They usually don't want to get help until they are at rock bottom. And these people out living in tents are at rock bottom and they still. Aren't getting help. So my thought process here, and I'd love to hear your comments on it is maybe what we do is create a program where we get these people off of the public lands, out of these nature areas.
[:[00:35:04] Eric Goranson: Let's see if we can get them off drugs in the whole scheme of things. It's going to be cheaper if we spend two years of time getting them taken care of and get them to be taxpaying citizens, get them into some skilled trades. Get them into being protective members of society. And I tell you what, that is how we're going to do this one little piece at a time.
[:[00:35:44] Eric Goranson: They're going to get medical attention. They're going to get the help they need. Then afterwards, we can have this discussion of getting them into affordable housing, because right now, if you take these people, a majority of them, now there's also great people out there that are struggling, living in cars.[00:36:00]
[:[00:36:17] Eric Goranson: And that's a more stressful situation for them. So I'd like to see us go around and get them the help they need. So one, we have safer communities too. We're helping people that man need our help. And three, now we can work on getting them into affordable housing. And create a place for them to live and we'll have a lot better condition for everyone.
[:[00:36:54] Eric Goranson: There's nonprofits. But when I see us spending 40 to 60, 000 a year, And we're [00:37:00] not moving the needle around. We need to be doing this differently. And I think that's where this is going to be that we need some public private partnerships. We need to get people thinking about how to fix people. We need to bring in the medical community and the mental health community, and we need to create a mental health care system that is equal to our medical health care system.
[:[00:37:40] Eric Goranson: And I think this is something that as a community, we can all stick together and help out our neighbors that maybe are living in the park down the street that we all drive past and go, ah, I wish they weren't here. We got to come up with some solutions. And I think they're out there. I think we just need to treat how we're doing it.
[:[00:38:19] Eric Goranson: If you want to find out more comment on this Feel free to head over to around the house, online. com for more information. And if you've got a home improvement question, I would love to answer it for you. That number is 8 that number again, 8 3 3 2 3 9 41 44. One more thing guys, before we go out to break here, I am always looking for new topics, new subjects, or even new products that you have found out there that I should be talking about.
[:[00:39:10] Eric Goranson: I'd love to hear from you. So head over to around the house online. com and you can send me a message. And I can promise you, I'm going to message you back. Cause I do every single time my staff doesn't do it. I get back to you. So I'll let you know what I think of it. And, uh, if you have questions, I'll do the same for you.
[:[00:39:41] Eric Goranson: House.
