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this is what Oahu is gonna look like in a few years
SAD
Agreed. It is very sad.
But if we don't build to the point of what that image represents, reduced inventory/increased scarcity of housing units will increase housing costs even further, making it impossible for middle and lower income people to live here.
If we want to keep prices affordable, we need to build build build (bad).
If you want prices to skyrocket further (bad), stop building and enjoy the green spaces and current density.
The low rise strategy crushed this island and only accomplished sprawl.
Agreed 100% but vertical density is pricier to build (per SF of home) and requires heavy public taxpayer subsidy if these homes are being provided to low and middle income folks.
It's much easier to just keep paving over preservation and/or agricultural land that is essentially free with low density homes that are roughly half the cost to build and maintain (per SF).
So what do you expect the realistic direction to be?
I can answer that for you... Hoopili, Koa Ridge, et al (and much much more of the same to come).
But if we don't build to the point of what that image represents, reduced inventory/increased scarcity of housing units will increase housing costs even further, making it impossible for middle and lower income people to live here.
If we want to keep prices affordable, we need to build build build (bad).
If you want prices to skyrocket further (bad), stop building and enjoy the green spaces and current density.
See the conundrum?
Oh i agree with what your saying but lets throw in another snag to that conundrum, what would happen if we overdid it and over build and then lost the desirability of living on Oahu? Maybe have 1.2 or 1.3 million people on Oahu then the 953,207 we have now. Think its crowded now? Wait
Commute time can be cut in half from the Leeward side by constructing a tunnel underneath Pearl Harbor. But the Defense Department definitely opposes such proposal.
There have already been a lot of building upward in Honolulu. Look at Kakaako. But the problem is those units, with one bedroom apartment asking for over $500,000, are not catered to the local Middle Class.
The State and the City are not helping either. During the last boom when the State and City actively got involved in the affordable housing market in the '90s, eligible homeowners paid about 60% of the equity while the government contributed around 40% for those developments in Ewa, Kapolei and Makakilo.
In the latest new project like Ward Village, the eligible homeowner has to pay about 90% while the government just contributes 10% to those affordable units.
There have already been a lot of building upward in Honolulu. Look at Kakaako. But the problem is those units, with one bedroom apartment asking for over $500,000, are not catered to the local Middle Class.
Middle class is roughly $42,000 to $124,000 household income in urban Honolulu according some articles I have come across.
Obviously the lower middle class is going to struggle with a $500,000 place (and there are cheaper places to be had - they just aren't going to be able to live in Kakaako). On the other hand, as you move up the middle class curve, a $500,000 place is not out of the question.
this is what Oahu is gonna look like in a few years
SAD
The picture depicts a nice clean, neat and tidy place - crowded, but tidy!!!!
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