I want to talk about 102 Taylor Street in Chapel Hill and the proposed LUMO modifications. It is an empty lot that I walk past several days a week to get my morning coffee. Several years ago, an old house was removed from the lot. Since then, there is no residential construction on the land […]
David Anderson
David Anderson (@bjdickmayhew) is currently a middle age PhD student in Population Health Sciences. He lives with his family in Chapel Hill after moving here from Pittsburgh where he used his masters in public policy ineffectively for a decade.
Posted inHousing
When we talk about housing policy, we need to talk about counterfactuals
Advocates for more missing middle housing routinely claim that decreasing the barriers to building new houses will lead to (slightly) lower rents. The underlying logic is that more supply, all else being equal, will lead to a new, and lower equilibrium price. Opponents of missing middle housing will point to cities and towns with increasing […]
Posted inChapel Hill
We need to remember what we are
Chapel Hill is a college town. More specifically, Chapel Hill is a research university town. Two of the top 13 institutions in the country that receive federal research funds are either in Chapel Hill or immediately adjacent to Chapel Hill. Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill received $2.4 billion in sponsored research and development funds for federal […]
Posted inChapel Hill
Do apartment buildings generate enough tax revenue to pay for the services they receive from the town?
Earlier this week, we asked a simple question — has recent large scale multi-family development in Chapel Hill improved the extent to which residential development as a whole pays for itself in terms of taxes paid versus public services consumed? We wrote that this question was based in part on a town-funded cost of services […]
Posted inHousing
A model for housing and housing prices
There’s quite a bit of vocal disagreement in Chapel Hill about how housing and housing prices work. Here, I lay out a simplistic model to illustrate how I think and what I assume about housing and housing prices. I hope this helps move our conversation forward. First, I will say that this model is going […]
Posted inChapel Hill
Housing policy needs a “Yes AND“ mindset
Earlier this week, a Chapel Hill affordable housing project won a significant state grant: The Town of Chapel Hill’s redevelopment project on Trinity Court is one step closer to breaking ground thanks to a major tax credit award from the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency. The Town was one of 28 projects in 23 North […]