Land Use
Homeownership is the #1 wealth creator in America. It provides stability for families, ladders of opportunity for first-time buyers, and future buyers for today’s homeowners. It keeps neighborhoods strong and sustains the School Districts by attracting families with kids.
But today, State and city planners are reframing homeownership as a burden. They call single-family detached homes “exclusionary.” They label neighborhood protections as “outdated.” And they continue to manipulate land capacity so that ownership opportunities vanish, while rentals dominate.
Government is making homeownership scarcer, more expensive, and less attainable — and they are immune to the consequences.
Bellingham as an Example
This map was set up to show the ANNEXATION of Bellingham or the "non-annexation" this one is at the top of the main page. It also includes EVERY PROPERTY OWNED BY THE CITY.
It is interactive and you can zoom in and click on the different areas.
How to get information from the map.
If you zoom into a particular area, the different "boundaries" are labeled, OR when you click on them, information will be available.
This is a 'work in progress'
I'm a real estate agent, Designated Broker for my firm, "ONE REAL ESTATE INC", Executive Director of a new housing charity, REAL HOUSING REFORM INITIATIVE, and the host of REAL ISSUES PODCAST. To say that I've taken on more than I can handle is an understatement.
However, I found it UNACCEPTABLE that when I bought my first home in 1998 the cost was 4X the median income, now it's 8-10X! I started to dig into what exactly caused this to happen and like the story about the frog in a pot and if you turn up the heat just so slightly each time, eventually the frog is boiling and they didn't even realize it. There are lots of different inputs that have caused housing to cost what it does.
This is not a "SHIT ON GOVERNMENT" website or platform; however, government land use restrictions, bureaucratic systems set up to discourage and dissuade development, and "conservation programs" that started with noble intentions have grown to be an all-consuming land grab.We are going to ask the tough questions and ensure that NO PROGRAM OR REGULATION is off the table when we are talking about TRUE AFFORDABILITY when buying, owning, or renting.