[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: Excellent article on drivers of housing prices

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Weaver, Sam


Fellow Councilors and HOTLINE followers,
 
I would like to share one of the most lucid and well-presented articles I have read about housing price drivers in desirable communities.  While the subject of the article is San Francisco, the economic principles presented and discussed, as well as the types of solutions, are extremely germane to the conversations around growth planning in our community.  Of particular interest are the analyses of effectiveness (or lack thereof) of building taller buildings and growing market-rate housing supply in increasing affordable housing supply in situations like Boulder and San Francisco face.
 
http://bit.ly/1rXijne
 
Lest you think that the points reported in the story are being made by anti-growth ideologues, I will excerpt from the bio of Doug Engmann, one of main interviewees:
 
Doug Engmann is President of Engmann Options Inc., a San Francisco private investment, securities consulting, and real estate firm owned by the Engmann brothers. Engmann Options is a family office which invests in a variety of start-up
 securities and technology firms as well as real estate.  Mr. Engmann retired in 2008 as the Senior Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Equities for Newedge USA, LLC (formerly Fimat USA).  Mr. Engmann graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s
 degree in economics from the University of California, Berkeley and holds a master’s degree in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  He has participated in several San Francisco official and non-profit organizations over the past 35 years including as a Commissioner of the San Francisco City Planning Commission (1989-1993) and a member of the Board of Permit Appeals (1977-1988).
 
All the best,
 
Sam Weaver
Member of Boulder City Council
weavers at bouldercolorado.gov
Phone: 303-416-6130