So a developer working with the government and getting incentives builds a nice neighborhood of homes that people can afford. People in the target income group buy the houses. All good. But when housing prices spike, what keeps the houses in the hands of the targeted economic group. When owner goes to sell, won’t the market dictate what happens, opening up the neighborhood to what has been referred to as gentrification?
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I think frankly, since the problem there is fundamental market forces, the only “real” solution is an economy with less unequal wealth. And more housing.
Gentrification is somewhat unavoidable when there are people with a lot more money than you nearby, who are willing to live in a poorer neighborhood in exchange for cheaper costs. It’s *inevitable* when those people are themselves being squeezed out of housing that is becoming too much for *them* to afford – that’s why they’re moving from their nice bougie neighborhoods to yours. In all these cities, gentrification is driven by relatively-high-salary workers looking for housing they can afford, further and further away from their city-center jobs, because all the housing that’s closer has already become too much for them, too, because of the people making even more than them.
The fact that housing supply is simply far short of demand is also part of this. Apartments kept vacant or used as Airbnbs, or just a refusal to build denser where there’s demand for it, all keep total supply low and drive up prices. The high prices in the city center are transferred to you in the poor outskirts, as people work in the city but can’t afford to live there.
Don’t take me for some ultra-communist who thinks everyone should have the exact same wealth. But, this problem gets worse as the gaps between income levels get bigger.
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