Prop.text has weighed in on zoning codes, land regulations that limit density of housing developments and the high costs of building affordable housing (bad, mostly bad and mostly ridiculous), but we’re open to taking another look when the spirit moves us.

The spark for this reconsideration started with a substack post from A.M. Hickman, whose Hickman’s Hinterlands has appeared in prop.text before. He pointed out that $20,000 homes could be had in the far reaches of New York State where he resides, up near the St. Lawrence River, the kind of place where my dad would say they have 11-and-a half-months of winter and two weeks of bad skating.

Hickman lamented how building codes made life even harder for poor people in rural areas:

He takes on the issue of safety, which is the impetus for a lot of what pushes up the cost of building a home:

I’m convinced there are a thousand better ways to ensure safety in the structures we buy, rent, and live in. An owner-builder should be free to do what he wishes until he chooses to rent or sell his home.

Note the inclusion of until. This implies that at some point when the home passes from the enterprising young man or woman who had the wherewithal to build it in the first place to new hands there will be some wand waved over the property to make it “safe” for the next inhabitant.

The writing team behind prop.text cranks out this newsletter every week because we believe in encouraging people to build generational wealth, and real estate is pretty high on our list of assets that can do that. When a  home is built without oversight, even by those who could build a “safe, sturdy structure,” there is no guarantee that it is safe or sturdy.

We are not picking on Hickman, and we encourage folks to sign up for his substack and send him large checks. He’s a fresh voice who writes honestly about rural life. 

First of all, we are inclined to agree that onerous and overly complex building codes do make it more difficult to meet the demand for affordable and decent housing. Our libertarian side is all in with Hickman. But our capitalist, generational wealth-building side makes us pause.

The “housing market” exists, and the reason that real estate tends to rise in value, is that buyers who are searching for a home make certain assumptions: the electrical system was installed according to code and won’t burn the house down, the sewage system has been built so that effluent won’t back up, the framing is sturdy and the structure won’t blow down in a nasty gale, and the water flowing from the tap won’t poison those who drink it. (These things do happen in American suburbs, but far less often than in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro or slums of Lagos.)

Prop.text has learned some of these lessons first hand. A pesky fire marshal in the western New Jersey town where there is a profitable mixed use property insisted that there be a working fire extinguisher on hand for the tenant, which came in handy when a stove fire broke out and the microwave was in flames. We know an electrician whose constant refrain is “that’ll burn the building down” whenever he replaces old wiring, a bad fuse, or a balky socket. (We recommend licensed tradesmen, not friends who “know something” about electrical stuff.)

So how to balance safety and the need to build more, and cheaper housing? 

Clearly, there are opportunities to streamline the building process and much of the noise around meeting the demand for housing focuses on that. 

Over the last 50 years, California has ranked near the bottom in the U.S. in home building, largely because of its regulatory environment, including the difficulties in obtaining permits, environmental rules, high fees for developers and statewide NIMBY obsession.

But something crazy happened in the Golden State back in 2016: the legislature passed its first law that permitted Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs, or so-called granny flats, in-law units or backyard cottages) to create more housing in the state. That state law has been updated since then and it makes it easier to build by putting these rules, among others, in effect: 

Californians have taken advantage, and some 19% of housing built there is now some form of an ADU, and 85,000 permits were taken out between 2016 and 2022. (A more recent count is hard to come by.

So if California can get more housing friendly (YIMBY: Yes In My Backyard), why not the far reaches of New York State?

Policy changes do not happen in a vacuum, and in California’s case, the severe housing shortage and complaints from constituents about how their children and family members were being forced to leave the state.

So perhaps Mr. Hickman, and his friends in the trades who complain to him about how terrible building inspectors are (dog, meet cat), should consider showing up at their next town council or zoning board meeting to complain. 

The old saw — the squeaky wheel gets the oil — is observable at the local level. The guy who shows up at meeting after meeting to complain about the pothole on his street near his driveway is more likely to get it fixed than the guy who stares out his window at the pothole and gripes to his wife how nothing ever gets done in this town.

And if Hickman and his cronies are ignored by the council, or the board? There are still elections in this country, and running for office is open to just about anybody. (In New York City, Paper Boy Love Prince ran in the 2020 Democratic primary.)  

Candidates who win elections can set policy, especially when they have allies who will vote with them on changing onerous old building codes, or instituting new policies, say one that would allow landowners to build certain habitable structures that adhere to a streamlined building code.

Crazier things have happened. Look at California.

The last year has been tough for real estate stocks, with heavyweights like Costar and Zillow share values about half of what they were a year ago, Real Estate News reported. CoStar hit $97 last August and is now trading at $39.48; Zillow, which peaked at nearly $90 a share last September, was trading at $40.79. (Prices as of April 7.) Brokerages have also had a tough year, with eXp down 39%, The Real Brokerage down 37%, REMAX down 32%, Compass down 16% and Douglas Elliman down 8% CoStar has been criticized for the company's strategy for Homes.com, while  Zillow has faced various lawsuits involving its Listing Access Standards, copyright violation claims and allegations it steered customers to Zillow Home Loans.

Fears that the New York City office real estate market would tank after the election of the Socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani need to be reassessed. Despite the ongoing migration to southern states by financial giants like Apollo Management Group and JP Morgan Chase, data from commercial real estate firm JLL shows that demand for office space and rents in Manhattan were up in the first quarter and vacancies are down. This trend started at the end of last year before Mamdani took office. JLL says companies are continuing to sign leases and compete for Class A office space in the most desirable buildings, allowing landlords to push rents higher.

JUST BECAUSE

Bruno Schickel found inspiration for his tiny house developments while he was reading the children's book "Miss Rumphius," to his daughters. The story by Barbara Cooney, which describes a young girl, Alice Rumphius, who wants to fill the world with flowers inspired him to create the tiny-home community of Boiceville Cottages in 1996, which is now home to more than 140 properties in the Finger Lakes region of New York State. The colorful homes are leased for 12 months, starting at $1,695 for a studio house, ranging up to $2,395 a month for a two-bedroom cottage with an office. In 2014, Schickel founded another development in Burdett, NY, that now has 60 rentals overlooking Lake Seneca, with prices from $1,695- $1,995 a month. The cottages attract every demographic and age group, including digital nomads, retirees, and younger families starting just out. "These communities were designed to make people interact with their neighbors," Schickel told Realtor.com. "They naturally create a sense of community, which makes for an easy way to socialize.”

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