Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Virginia (version unedited by editorial staff)                                                 The Solution for “Affordable Housing” In recent years local commentators have discovered the “affordable housing crisis”.  But for many years now families with solid middle-class jobs have been unable to buy in any of the new housing developments in Hampton Roads.  The new homes are well beyond the middle class’ price range even with record low interest rates.  How is such an odd problem caused?  Why would there not be a large housing market for what has always been, after all, the majority of the families in Hampton Roads?

Despite suspicions of a big business plot, residential developers have no particular reason to build only large, expensive houses.  There are only so many people that can buy in that range anyway.  Since the lower end of the market is not being met right now, a free market in housing would reward those developers who fill the gap in supply.  In a situation like today but with a free market, building smaller homes would yield higher profits to developers than building more and more expensive homes would.  The shortage would take care of itself.             So, how did we get here?  Look for the usual suspect when an absurd, unjust dilemma is presenting itself. The central reason a free market does not exist in housing in Hampton Roads is the overarching power of local government to dictate what kind of homes can be built.  This is done through restrictive zoning laws that leave little leeway to builders and property owners.  Almost every housing project over the past few decades was drawn and presented precisely in a way to please our local masters in the so-called planning departments of City Halls across the region.  Generally, new housing that does not pass muster with city council does not get built.

Yet, why would politicians only want expensive homes built in their city?  Every citizen has a vote.  An economy cannot work with homes available only for the well off.   Here is one occasion where the politicians are the victim of the system rather than the schemers creating the problem. Frankly, our city councils feel unable to fund the education requirements for middle class families given our present system.  This is the 900-pound gorilla in the room that no one talks about in this debate on affordable housing.               The citizens of Virginia Beach may have low wages compared to average, but they pay to educate children like they are millionaires.  The average cost of the Virginia Beach Public School System for each child, K-12, is a whopping $8,200/year.   In comparison, private elementary schools in the city cost between $3,000 and $5,000 annually.  Catholic High School charges tuition for non-church affiliated students at less than $10,000/year: far less than per student spending in public high schools.  Other private high schools in this region charge as little as $6,000/year in tuition. This huge level of public spending on education is very much the rule rather than the exception.  Even the impoverished citizens of Portsmouth manage somehow to pay $6,700/year on average for the education of one public school student for one year.

Therefore, if a police officer with three school age children buys a house in Virginia Beach, the city taxpayers are required to fund the public schools in the amount of $24,600 annually.  The taxes paid on a house worth $220,000 would come nowhere near meeting such an obligation even if all of the other sources of city taxes are added in.  Since the newer housing in the market usually has to pay a lion’s share of public education expenses in an assessment-based system, city councils feel almost forced to only approve expensive housing that will seemingly keep the unfunded education Leviathan afloat.

If the police officer cannot afford more than $220,000 for a house, his family is left with paying much more for a home compared to its true value from among the older stock of housing.  Ironically, restrictive zoning laws in this instance make the housing demand greatest for the properties that seem hardly worth owning.  The only other choice for the officer’s family is to live in the hinterlands and commute.  This is ideal, of course, from our local planners’ perspective.  You can come work in our city: Just leave your kids and their needs somewhere else for someone else to pay for.   The solution to creating affordable housing is crystal clear and easily accomplished: Relax the zoning restrictions on development of such housing.  There will rather quickly be enough “affordable housing” to meet the market demand.  If this ends up meaning that the cost of education is compelled to be brought into some kind of sane balance, it is very much a good thing.    More legal rules and therefore more arbitrary restrictions can never become a solution to a government created problem like this one.  Only greater freedom works to cure the ills of socialist practices. Stephen Merrill, Tidewater Libertarian Party