Housing in the Kansas City area, and in Missouri overall, is quickly becoming unaffordable. The city and state are seeing some of the fastest rent increases in the country, and local housing experts and advocates say Kansas City needs to do more to protect residents.
Build, build, build.
The only new houses I see being built are those awful huge, square cookie cutter houses that cost 750k. I have no idea how the market can support the least useful kind of house for the general population.
I barely go into the suburbs these days, but I don’t doubt that’s all that’s being built. In KC proper, in some neighborhoods like Waldo, I have been seeing smaller houses being built. A developer will demolish an older home and build a new home. These are smaller houses than whats out in the suburbs of course, since the plots in the city are smaller, but they probably would be good for single people, DINKs, or new families. Not everyone needs 2000+ sq ft of space. It’d be great if the suburbs also invested in these smaller, starter houses, but it’s my understanding that the economics don’t make as much sense.
Of course, that’s all focusing on DSFH. We need to address the “missing middle.” More multifamily housing. Build duplexes, townhouses, lowrise condos, whatever. I for one don’t need/want a whole house. But I would like to own something more akin to an apartment.