Riffing on RIF

News flash:

Making the benefits of TOD available to residents at all income levels is a significant policy challenge. There is a long-term shortage of affordable housing in many cities, and existing affordable housing near transit may be lost as federal subsidies expire.

Or maybe it’s not really news. 

Green Housing, Not to Be Confused with Clean Housing)

You know, cause even if you use clean energy for residential power, calling it a clean house makes people feel like they have to vacuum more often, which uses extra energy, making it less clean. The irony!

Anyway, I was making a presentation this morning on clean energy in the ARRA, and I made the point that a lot of the money for energy is not just in Department of Energy grant, but in places like Department of Housing. Ta-da! And some pretty high tech stuff, too.

Of course, again, the real wins come when all of those solar panels and biofuels are provided and installed by local companies. Another reason why we need to keep coordinated on who gets what stimulus money and what products and services our growing clean tech companies are commercializing.

“Not Everyone Can or Should Own a Home”

This is from August (I’m still catching up from vacation), but thought I’d put in my two cents using month-old pennies.

Obviously, given the housing crisis, the main argument for an “ownership society” as a way to create wealth and upward mobility has lost some steam, at least when that ownership society is created using zero down, zero interest, “ninja” loans.* Which begs the question on the second plank of that argument, which is essentially that homeowners are better citizens: more likely to vote, more likely to be involved in their communities, etc. Is it really homeownership, or a host of other socio-economic factors that make the difference?

Of course, the federal investment in affordable housing has decreased significantly over the past 30 years or so, and now it’s all things like Washington State’s Housing Trust Fund and the Seattle Housing Levy. It will be interesting to see how this change in federal policy affects these local funding decisions.

*”No Income, No Job, and (no) Assets” for those of you curious about the ninja loan acronym.

Salt in the Wound, which has been re-opened just so you could put salt into it

Leilani Lanes was the world’s best karaoke bar with a great bowling alley attached to it. Then it got sold to a developer and it closed. It was going to be made into condos. It was a shot to the heart…love progress of course, just so sad to see a great place go.

Leilani then

Now (a few weeks ago actually) word comes that the developer is bankrupt and the property has been taken back by the bank.

Why? Why do I have to die this death over and over? Is it not enough that this icon of all things cool is gone, surrounded by a chain link fence?

Can’t it just become condos and be done.   I mean, highest and best use is great. Progress is great. But closing the old girl down and replacing her with nothing? It’s a crying shame. Literally. I am crying. And it’s a shame.

Leilani now

Curse you, economy. When times are good you take away pleasure, when times are bad you take away lack of pain.  Have you no soul?  No compassion?

Can you at least put a karaoke mic in the parking lot, just for old time’s sake?

What Housing Crisis?

Congrats to Bremerton and Silverdale, the region with the best potential in the nation for growth in home value. Talk about bucking national trends!

This quote is particularly interesting: “In 2000, per capital income in Bremerton/Silverdale was 1 percent below the national average. In 2008, it was 8 percent higher than the national average, he said.”

I guess in the ongoing debate over the legacy of departing Mayor Bozeman, this may be one in his favor….

Something Important Was Said on Friday!

At the most recent Prosperity Partnership Regional ARRA Coordination meeting, we had a speaker from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to talk about their Broadband Technology Opportunities Program. This is the $4.7 billion that the stimulus package laid out to help beef up broadband adoption in our country, and likely the first down payment in a larger national broadband strategy.

Anyway, the speaker used one of my favorite grad school words – leveraging – when talking about how they’re going to judge applications for broadband stimulus dollars. As in, they’re actually going to see what other ARRA dollars are being used in the vicinity and how this project connects to those. He mentioned a couple of examples: some obvious, like relationship to Health IT investments, but some really interesting, like relationship to HUD investments in low income housing projects. This is sort of a no-brainer, since low-income people fit into that “unserved/underserved” criteria that they’re talking about for BTOP, but it’s something I’d never heard before and potentially a huge driver of the collaborative coordination process that we and other regions are leading.

Obvious caveat: the regs aren’t out yet for these dollars so we’ll see how much that actually makes it into the Notice of Funds Availability. But let’s see what we can do now on the chance that it is indeed true!

Seattle P-I Discovers Snarkiness

What is it about becoming online only that turns you sarcastic?  Seriously, all the professional bloggers are cynical wiseacres.  That having been said, very funny title.

I can’t blame Generation Y , though. It’s the American Dream of their parents that has been idealized by the media and popular culture for years, so it’s hard to get the goal of white picket fences out of your system. They’ll learn though. Especially once gas prices go back up in a few years, and living on the farm with your horses and driving into downtown doesn’t seem so fun anymore. Plus you have to shovel horse poop!

You Can’t Even Do It In Harvard Yard Anymore

Pahk Ya Cah, that is, if you know what I mean. And now you may not be able to do it in Tacoma. (BTW, I realize this article is, like, three weeks old, but hey, it’s the legislative session.)

The discussion of minimum parking requirements – essentially how many stalls developers need to build in their buildings – is one of costs vs. amenities. On one hand, it can cost the developer up to $25,000 per parking spot because it’s essentially unsell-able or unlease-able space that would otherwise be a commercial or residential unit. But, if you are looking to live or set up an office somewhere, you may want to be able to park (or pahk) your car off-street, unless there is good enough public transportation from home to work.

It’s always seemed to me like this should be a pure market calculation, right? If developers know that they need to have parking in the building to attract tenants, they will. If they don’t (because of that transit or walkability), they won’t. So, why does government need to be involved and setting arbitrary minimums?

Certainly, there are some “tragedy of the commons” issues, potentially. If everyone just relies on street parking, then you may have overcrowding outside the building. But even then, in a perfect market, a commercial garage would spring up. Instead, if government invests in walkability and transit in urban cores, you may not need the parking, and you may reduce both traffic congestion and emissions. I’ve even heard tell of cities with “maximum parking limits” for buildings, which takes it the other way.

Anyway, the point is, this is a good tool for increasing affordability of market rate housing (that $25,000 per space gets divided up among the units), and it’s something our more dense, urban cities should be looking into. Good job, Tacoma!

The Mortgage Professor

Jack Guttentag (a.k.a. the Mortgage Professor) has a piece today entitled, Saving the Banks Without Breaking the Bank. It basically argues that we should be focused on consumer rescue rather than institutional rescue because the only way to stop the slide in real estate prices is to help those underwater not be forced into bankruptcy thus limiting the erosion in value of the institution’s assets.

What do you think?

The Government Will Pay You To Own a House

Anyone remember good old Matthew Lesko? Guy in a strange “The Riddler” jacket shouting on late night TV about how the government wants to give you lots of money, if only you buy his book and find out how.

Sort of seems like we’re on the path into Lesko land with interest rates.

If No One Wants It, Is It Really an Incentive?

It’s like if your parents said, “Come on, honey, eat your vegetables. If you do, you’ll get to stay up and do an extra hour of math homework!” Or maybe it’s not. Time will tell whether incentive zoning is truly going to influence Seattle’s developers to include affordable units in their buildings or if they’re going to just pass on the opportunity to increase the height of their developments.

I Hope They Don’t Paint All the Houses Mellow Yellow…

A couple of important stories over the weekend, housing-wise. Let’s start on the national front, where President-elect Obama selected Donovan as his HUD Secretary nominee. No, not singer of the song “Mellow Yellow” Donovan! New York City Housing Commissioner Shaun Donovan.

It’s Always Darkest Before the Dawn

In the face of this, it’s nice to be ranked #1 for this: “Real Estate Markets Most Likely To Rebound”.

Readers Agree: We Make Good Mixed Use Affordable Housing

Congrats to Capitol Hill Housing for winning Affordable Housing Finance magazine’s 2008 Reader’s Choice Best Overall Project award. The project is featured on the magazine’s November cover.

Apparently, Broadway Crossing has already received a number of awards, including a 2007 Governor’s “Smart Communities” Award, a 2008 Associated Builders and Contractors Excellence in Construction Award, and was a finalist in Home Depot’s Excellence in Affordable Housing Competition. The building is also the first multifamily building in Seattle to achieve a LEED Silver Certification.

Good stuff. One more example of how affordable, workforce housing can be aesthetically pleasing, fit neighborhood character and complement other planning and development goals like density and transit-oriented development.

Dear Federal Government:

I see in the news you are going to spend $50 billion to guarantee mortgages. Apparently the plan will entail lowering interest rates for 5 years for distressed home owners. I am writing to let you know that I am distressed. I have a 30 year mortgage in which I put 20 percent down. My wife and I have been making extra payments each month to pay off the mortgage early. I am distressed that you will be giving my hard earned tax payer money to people who have been irresponsible. I can assure you that if you give me some of the $50 billion I will put it to good use. For example, I will spend it on candidates for office who won’t give a bunch of money to irresponsible people on Wall Street and Main Street.

Best regards,

Sam Kaplan