SJ's "Affordable Housing" strategy is way more expensive than it needs to be

While SJ City staff complains to local media, correctly, about how excessive regulation and pandering to special interests contribute to high cost of new housing, they completely miss the main reason new housing costs so much: San Jose has forced all new building to take place within its Urban Growth Boundary (UGB), where land is more expensive and building constraints force taller, more expensive construction. The sainted Randall O'Toole parses the data.

California has some of the densest and most expensive urban areas in the nation. Thanks to growth management, 95 per cent of the state's 2010 population was confined to 5% of the state's land. The average density of California's urban areas was twice the average for urban areas in the rest of the country. Median home prices averaged more than six times median family incomes, and in some cities, price to income ratios were above 10.

In response, planners propose "affordable housing" in the form of mid rise or high rise developments. But the need for elevators and structural steel and concrete makes this "affordable" housing cost several times as much pers square foot, as single family homes.

{Builder and construction manager} Nicholas Arenson notes that the most affordable housing is two stories tall.