If You Build It, Affordability Doesn’t Come. Charlotte, NC, Tries Old Anew

Just build more housing, any housing, even luxury housing. Affordability will trickle down. You’ll see! It’s the mantra of the building industry as well as the YIMBY (Yes In Your Back Yard¹) movement.

But in Charlotte, NC, affordability didn’t come. (Does it come anywhere?)

So Charlotte is now seriously looking, not at new buildings, but at old ones. Is it better bang for the subsidy buck to outbid developers for older apartment buildings? Then, instead of tearing them down for new construction, fixing them up for affordable housing?

Could it work? And for how long? Read more at WAFE: Finding Home: Charlotte’s New Plan For Affordable Housing – Invest In Older Apartments

1. Although ‘Your’ is intended to be ‘My’ in the acronym, a national movement doesn’t have a ‘back yard’ unlike NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) supporters who inevitably share a neighbourhood.