Housing innovation in Seattle

There is an article ("More high-rise apartments needed, says bank chief - ‘Build up’ with taller blocks in Dublin to solve housing crisis, says McDonagh") in the Irish Times about the state of housing in Dublin--the Sinn Fein Party rose to the top of the board in last weekend's elections in part because it called for a subsidized home building program--and a banker made an interesting point. From the article:

[Francesca McDonagh] The former HSBC banker said she had lived and worked for most of her life in cities with high-rise buildings. She said that when she moved to Dublin to take over the top job at the bank in 2017, she was surprised by the city's "sprawl and the flatness of the skyline".

She said the city "sweeps" into the neighbouring counties of Louth, Wicklow and Meath and "it doesn't stop there". A city should have "the most options in the least space," she said.

More housing in the least amount of space is a pretty succinct description of what housing policy should aim to achieve in a city, as most cities are constrained by their boundaries and after a certain point can only grow up.

This is especially true today considering both population increases--when legacy cities were mostly constructed the US population was 40% of what it is today, plus shrinking household sizes and a rising share of single households, now almost 30% of total households ("Eric Klinenberg on Going Solo," Smithsonian Magazine).

For example, DC is 62 sq. miles, although about 1/3 is taken up by federal land and has more than 700,000 residents.

 OTOH, Fairfax and Montgomery Counties have about 1.1 million residents each on about 400 sq. miles. Then again, San Francisco is 47 sq. miles with 880,000 population, while Philadephia is 134 sq. miles with over 1.5 million residents. But Phoenix has 1.66 million residents but over 500 sq. miles of land.

Geekwire has a story, "This Seattle startup gives big discounts on home rentals — but only if you agree to Airbnb a room," on a number of housing "innovations" in Seattle.

• Loftium rents out homes to tenants at a discount if they agree to become an Airbnb host.
  
• Loftium previously created a program providing down payment assistance to homebuyers who agreed to split their Airbnb profits with the company. The offering was popular, but the company ran into issues due to rising housing prices, competition among buyers, and the complexity of the mortgage process.
  

A story from KING-TV outlines two other programs:

• Common offers dorm-style housing for adults with rent in Capitol Hill at just over $1,000, if you don't mind sharing common spaces.
• For anyone trying to avoid renting all together, Flyhomes is helping people buy homes by making cash offers on the buyer's behalf.

Commonspace in a Common building in Los Angeles.

What's old is new again.  These programs aren't really new.  Group housing is not new.  Although now it's being called "co-living" ("With loneliness and rents on the rise, co-living is gaining a foothold in Boston," Boston Globe; "“Co-living” is the new “having roommates” — with an app," Vox)  From the article:

“Our general philosophy is to keep all the good parts of roommate living and get rid of all the bad parts,’’ said Brian Lee, senior director of real estate at Common, a New York-based co-living company with 1,000-plus residents in six US cities. Arx Urban and Common have filed plans with the city of Boston to build a 282-bed co-living project called Common Allbright in Allston.

“I think Boston has a lot of the same characteristics that have made us successful in cities like New York and San Francisco,’’ Lee said. “Rents are very high in Boston, there’s not a lot of residential supply, and so a lot of young professionals making between $50,000 and $90,000 a year don’t have great housing options.’’

Common Allbright’s proposal includes 35 income-restricted bedrooms starting at $844 a month, according to plans submitted to the city, while the market-rate rent in a four-bedroom unit is estimated to start at $1,500 a month. In both instances, rent is inclusive of utilities, Wi-Fi, weekly house cleaning, furniture, kitchenware, and supplies like toilet paper and dish soap.

Definitely an advantage of the Common "platform" is that you are renting a single room, even if shared, so you're not responsible for when another roommate may be in arrears.

Loans for buying a house.  Providing loans in return for sharing property appreciation gains isn't new exactly either.  But with declining returns in most other kinds of investments, more capital is available--at least in strong real estate markets--to fund alternative investment vehicles involving residential real estate ("As unsafe as houses," Financial Times).

Microunits.  And there is the microunit type, although the US version is a lot bigger, averaging 400 s.f. (The Macro View on Microunits, report, Urban Land Institute) but can range from 100-300 s.f., at the lower boundaries ("What Is a Micro-Apartment? Even Tinier Than a Tiny House. A Huge Trend Explained," Realtor.com) closer to "capsule" housing in Asia ("Hong Kong riled by latest tiny 'space capsule' homes," BBC), which are more common as pod/capsule hotels.