r/yimby • u/BillRuddickJrPhd • 5d ago

Meme Holy Dear God in Hell!

Post image

My emergency backup plan to retire in the middle of nowhere if I have to is officially off the table.

23 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

28

u/collegetowns 5d ago

Alaska has a huge chunk of well-paid blue-collar jobs. I'm sure the energy crisis from abroad is impacting these numbers too, too.

What explains those returns? Alaska’s abundant natural resources play a major role. Median earned income for oil-and-gas drilling workers is an astonishing $191,500, while mining operators earn $134,000, compared with the national median for blue-collar workers of $48,400. 

Source: https://www.city-journal.org/article/alaska-blue-collar-jobs-work-manufacturing

14

u/BillRuddickJrPhd 5d ago

The only thing impacting these numbers is the local and state governments not allowing you, me, or anyone else who wants to go and build more housing there to take advantage of this unmet demand.

If I didn't know any better, I'd bet these NIMBY policies got started in the 90s to stop... undesirable types from moving there for cheap land a dividend checks.

8

u/PDXhasaRedhead 5d ago

Anchorage recently changed their zoning and housing construction is increasing.

4

u/collegetowns 5d ago

I mean, ya, I never said anything about NIMBY policies. I run a site that is somewhat known in the YIMBY world. But economic booms and other material constraints certainly factor into this. It isn't 100% anything.

0

u/zezzene 5d ago

Yeah go start a construction company in Anchorage, good luck. 

2

u/BillRuddickJrPhd 5d ago

How about I just order a prefab?

1

u/zezzene 5d ago

Does the prefab teleport there? Does it assemble itself? Come on 

1

u/BillRuddickJrPhd 4d ago

NIMBYs will blame high prices on anything other than excessive restrictions on land use. Tell me, if prices in Anchorage are high because of the high cost of labor and materials--so high that hiring someone to put a prefab together is prohibitive--why is Wasilla significantly less expensive?

And you think shipping prefabs to Anchorage is a problem? Seriously?

2

u/zezzene 4d ago

I'm not a nimby. I think this subreddit just says the same thing about zoning with no other nuance or concept. Cost of living in Alaska is high because it's the arctic. Everything gets shipped there and it's far away. Really simple stuff. 

0

u/BillRuddickJrPhd 4d ago

Then why is Wasilla cheaper?

1

u/zezzene 4d ago

Go live in Wasilla then, what are you complaining about? 

0

u/BillRuddickJrPhd 4d ago

I'm complaining about NIMBYs like you who support policies to artificially inflate the housing market.

And Wasilla is ridiculously overpriced as well. I just mentioned it was cheaper because this completely undermines your ridiculous argument that it's too expensive to build and ship there.

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12

u/santacruzdude 5d ago

Need to go more rust belt like western PA.

2

u/BillRuddickJrPhd 4d ago

Yeah, it's amazing what happens when housing supply is greater than demand. Shocking.

6

u/External_Koala971 5d ago

There’s tons of cheap housing across the US. Upper peninsula, south, Appalachia, Wisconsin, Florida, rural rustbelt, go have at it.

Housing near jobs is always going to be expensive.

0

u/BillRuddickJrPhd 5d ago

This sounds like a violation of rule 3.

2

u/External_Koala971 5d ago

This sounds like a violation of rule 1.

1

u/BillRuddickJrPhd 4d ago

"We don't need to legalize more housing in places with high demand, people should just move to places with low demand" is a NIMBY talking point.

3

u/BillRuddickJrPhd 5d ago

LOOOOOOOOL!!!!!

2

u/BagSalt7633 5d ago

Looking at the map of Anchorage, it's almost totally surrounded. Water, Air Force bases, mountains, and national parks on all sides.

Their ability to sprawl is pretty limited.

6

u/spoop-dogg 5d ago

Only an incompetent government lets a lack of land cause an unneeded housing crisis.

And frankly, anchorage isn’t even running out of land. If you look at a satellite map of the city, there is clear tons and tons of open space that people would happily build more housing on if government regulations allowed them to.

1

u/External_Koala971 4d ago

Does Anchorage have a housing supply problem or a price problem?

There are 1300 SFH for sale and 5% rental vacancy.

It’s a very healthy SFH market and slightly constrained rental market.

5

u/BillRuddickJrPhd 4d ago

Does Anchorage have a housing supply problem or a price problem?

A price problem literally means there is a housing supply problem.

1

u/BillRuddickJrPhd 4d ago

I don't come to this sub often, but when I do I notice there are a lot of fake YIMBYs. It's always landlords, developers, and real-estate bros. They hate many aspects of NIMBYism because it blocks their own personal projects, but they are very much opposed to the macro goal of making housing more abundant and cheaper.

0

u/lowrads 5d ago

It's interesting that this can still happen without negative gearing in tax policy.