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I just moved to Minneapolis last year. Rent is still outrageous. It is nice to see that it’s improving something but it is hands down the most expensive and competitive place I’ve ever had to apartment shop. Our 1 bedroom 1 bath apt for $1500/mo hit the market and was rented within 4 days by one of the 7 groups who immediately booked a tour. Progress is something though
It feels awkward to reference California but California isn't shown in the graph.
I think even people advocating for required parking would concede that it adds to construction costs and reduces the total amount of housing available—but they’d presumably argue that there are other benefits offsetting those negative effects. This chart says nothing about what those benefits might be or whether the tradeoffs are worth it.
I would bet some of those places have land cheap enough that the parking costs almost nothing
Omaha having a 5.3% population gain from 2017 to 2022 vs a 3.7% population gain in Minneapolis also probably plays a role as well... Yet Omaha was second most productive on creations on the left, and still prices increased rather than diminished.
Those benefits would be having a place to park.
Also, if you don't have adequate parking space in an area, it results in cars spilling out into the nearest street parking.
That being said, if you want to increase housing density and you want available parking, you either gotta convert some low-rise buildings into parking and some into higher-density housing, or you gotta build parking garages, which cost substantially more than ground parking.
kagis
https://dcplm.com/blog/cost-of-building-a-parking-garage/
The cost per space varies based on the location and design of the parking garage.
- A surface lot is $1,500-$10,000 per space (economical).
- An above ground garage is $25,000-$35,000 per space (balanced).
- An underground garage is $35,000-$50,000 per space (expensive from excavation).
- Automated parking garages can vary greatly, but typically fall within the range of above-ground garages.
Any parking mandate adds to the cost of the housing. That being said, I generally think that that's worthwhile (and frankly, my experience has been that parking mandates generally aren't high enough for existing apartments). If you have a one-parking-slot-per-apartment mandate, you also have a number of people in those apartments who have multiple cars.
considers
I do kind of wonder how much it would cost to do low-rise parking garages. Usually when I see them, they're in high-value areas, downtowns and stuff, and very tall.
https://f.hubspotusercontent20.net/hubfs/9476621/2021%20Parking%20Structure%20Cost%20Outlook.pdf
This has multistory parking garage construction costs for different locations. It looks like parking garage construction cost in San Francisco is about 50% higher than a lot of the country. I wouldn't expect materials cost to vary much from state to state. Some of that is maybe earthquake code compliance. Some probably labor cost.
EDIT: One other point I'd add is that if you have one parking spot, it's also possible to fit multiple motorcycles/mopeds in it. I know one person who was in an apartment who kept her motorcycle and another one in her parking space. Some places in (arid parts of) California are pretty amenable to motorcycle use.
EDIT2: If you figure, back of the napkin, that housing has an expected 10% ROI and the price difference between a surface parking slot and a multistory parking garage parking slot is maybe $25k, then it's gonna increase annual rent for an apartment by maybe $2,500 or $208/mo, which I kinda suspect is gonna be rather outweighed by potential decrease in rent from more supply of housing being available; the price difference between "high demand area" housing and "low demand area" housing is a lot more than that.
https://constructioncoverage.com/research/cities-with-the-most-expensive-rents
The top four most-expensive US cities median rental price for a 1-bedroom apartment rental here are all in California: San Jose ($3,223), San Francisco ($2,705), San Diego ($2,534), and Los Angeles ($2,358).
The four least expensive cities are St. Louis, MO ($1,059), Cleveland, OH ($1,046), Oklahoma City, OK ($1,010), and Tulsa, OK ($994).
That's a lot of difference there to work with.
I'm no longer in California, but yeah. As the world heats up, people are going to want to have to walk less and less to get to their vehicle, and some places may even need covered parking (thinking about anyone near or in a desert, especially Las Vegas).
Also, not having to deal with having to find a spot that's relatively close and safe.
What could be done is underground parking, but that'd raise expenses by quite a lot, and land is cheap.
I mean I'm for it, but like you say it'll increase costs exponentially for everyone involved.
Another solution would be separate parking garages. Where I live now, there are two free ones downtown where you can park all day.
Yeah. There are a few other differences between California and Minnesota other than “are you allowed to say ‘lol good luck and fuck you’ before unleashing hundreds of drivers to gobble up all the street parking with no analysis of whether that will lead to a shortage of parking for anyone, externalizing all the costs onto some other hapless bastard and making life worse for everyone?’”
In Japan, in order to register your car you need to prove you have a sufficient parking spot for it (they literally send an inspector to measure the space), or you can drive a tiny Kei car. Maybe we could learn a thing from Japan here.
Those who build apartments have a good idea how much parking is needed. They have incentive to figure it out because while it costs money to build parking it costs them when someone who wants parking decides to rent elsewhere where they can find it. Getting this balance right needs to be figured out for each block though, and so the city is too big to have a code.
As you point out, it costs money to build parking, but externalizing that cost is completely free. Since there is no block-by-block governmental structure that can enact regulations to stop people externalizing the costs individually, and the outcome of no one ever having any parking unless they pay to rent a space really isn't ideal, I think having the city make parking zones and be aware of the problems and try to do something about them is a pretty acceptable substitute.
What?
We have so many fucking luxury apartments in Seattle, it's insane. Also, tons of people that could afford those luxury apartments were laid off. This is one fucked up chart.
If people are willing to pay for luxury apartments that says there are not too many. Let me know when more than 20% are empty. If it is less than 20% empty but more than 5% that is a good thing: it means that people who want one can find one, less than 5% and finding an apartment is too hard. The economy has ups and downs all the time which is why 20% is still okay, since when things come back those will get filled.
All new apartments are luxury. People who want/need cheap apartments are looking for something 50+ years old that has had the minimum remodels done since those are always much cheaper for the same size. Building an apartment is expensive and that needs to be paid for by adding some (relatively cheap) features that are luxury today.
If people are willing to pay for luxury apartments that says there are not too many.
They keep them empty to keep the prices up. They also price fix and have been caught. I'm sure they've figured out a way around the laws and do it anyway.
I agree there’s missing context.
There’s a few other places that I can think of which have a lot of “new dwellings” built, even without parking, but local rent is unaffected because the type of dwelling is simply undesirable - for either financial reasons (luxury apartments are too much money) or practical (I have 2 kids and can’t live in a 1 bedroom + den - or they’re distant from work, no transit, and there’s no parking) or personal (I have 2 kids and don’t want them to grow up in the pollution etc. of a downtown core).
There is not a simple solution to this problem.