A new report from Realtor.com is questioning whether the Trump administration’s plans to use federal land for housing development will make any impact on the nation’s housing shortage.
Approximately 640 million acres of land are federal owned, accounting for nearly one-quarter of the nation’s landmass. However, the new report determined most of the federal holdings are far from the markets where the housing shortage is most pronounced. Those land, which are primarily in Alaska and the Western states, either have sufficient housing supply or lack the infrastructure to support major new housing developments. But the Northeast, which faces an 830,000-home deficit, has little or no federal land available for development.
Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale observed, “While freeing up federal lands for housing is one of many solutions on the table, addressing the housing crisis at scale requires aligning supply with where demand actually is. That means advancing local reforms, such as easing zoning restrictions, encouraging missing-middle housing, and investing in infrastructure and transit, to unlock land that’s already close to jobs, schools and amenities.”
Every little bit helps in making vacant land available for residential development. There is no magic wand to solve all the housing shortage issues. In central Indiana when residential development encroaches on existing farms some farmers sell and make a very hefty profit or the stay put for awhile until they are overwhelmed and finally sell. Rezoning is easier in Indiana for the most part. In New England many towns want to stay quaint and making new construction harder and especially for large housing developments. Land pricing in these areas has a lot to do with being able to build affordable housing for the lower to middle class. The residents need to change their ways of thinking for no growth or slow growth to accept a few medium to large housing developments. Unincorporated areas outside of town limits if available may be an easier solution to building but I imagine that that has been tried. I’m glad that we here in the Indianapolis area have much less problems to meeting some of the housing demand that we see year in and year out.
Nice try, Greg. Opening land in Alaska is strictly for fossil fuel access. This administration is filled with con artists making things easier for the Robber Barons of the 21st century to rape and pillage what has taken almost two centuries to preserve for ALL OF US.
There is no housing crisis. The previous administration, soon to be prosecuted from top to bottom, created this myth. Likewise, Obama, soon to be prosecuted for treason, nationalized the student loan program and a few years later, announced the “student loan crisis” which doesn’t exist. The Democrat party is full blown treasonous and communist. The party is abortion, assassination, assisted suicide, open borders, racism, hate, violence, pedophilia, genital mutilation, rape, murder and of course, treason. Hopefully, we will have Nuremberg style tribunals of every left wing politician (including RINOs) and they will pay a price for their crimes, especially the climate change and covid hoaxes. Trump was elected to destroy the Democrat party like Lincoln did.
Every acre helps, obviously someone has no common sense. Also some
cities, counties, states need to loosen up on their zoning and restrictions
to help the situation. I am a Realtor, previous developer(quit because of red
tape and close mined government officials(city, county and state).Thank You
Of course you were unwilling to put your name on that horrifying diatribe that had nothing to do with the article and should not have been published. You do not represent any of the people that I know, including Republican, Democrat and Independent voters.
I agree that the reply by the person that would not post their name should not have been published. I do not agree with the notion that there is a housing shortage. In the past few weeks there has been many articles on a housing surplus. Partly because the housing is overpriced from the covid high and high interest rates. Most markets are seeing an adjustment in pricing which will help some. State and local governments that control zoning and other building restrictions are in place for a reason. At some point these entities will have to decide on how to keep our service sector housed to keep our communities alive! Opening federal land is a farse! The current administration is just trying to figure out how to line their pockets will cheap land and resources. Public land should stay public for
“ WE THE PEOPLE “
I do not see that there is a housing shortage currently. What I do see in housing is lack of affordability in urban and suburban areas. The pre-pandemic low interest rates that stayed low for way too long fueled price levels. What are we gonna do about it now? These rates are 30 year fixed mortgages that no one wants to give up. Unlike the pre-2008 crash where those rates were low ARMs and adjusted upward, leading homeowners to walk away. This is a whole different ball game. Land is virtually nonexistent in urban and suburban areas and not many people want to move to the more affordable rural communities. So unless we have another crash with a glut of excess housing from foreclosures, I don’t see what’s going to break this cycle. Maybe non-owner occ’s will tap cash out and dump some of their over-saturated AirBNBs? Who knows!