January 11, 2015     Permalink Tweet: Does Affordable Housing Really Need to Be So Scarce in Most Big Cities?: click here Submitted by Richard Clark

Why is it that a growing percentage (approaching 50%) of urban men today, ages 20-40, cannot afford to rent or buy a home that is as nice as the one in which they and their parents lived back in the 60s, 70s or 80s? Why is it that only a small percentage of such men in most cities can any longer afford to buy a median-priced home there? The median income in San Francisco is less than half what's needed to buy a home there. Meanwhile, there are plenty of rundown buildings in, or very close to, such a city -- as well as a huge supply of currently idle workers (many of them long-term unemployed), who would love to repair and refurbish such buildings . . if it would eventually earn them a home of their own.