More affordable housing is more housing
Alberto Esquenazi lives in a two-bedroom apartment with one roommate the Avalon at Foxhall. His monthly rent is $2,400.
“I know some kids go to City Ridge, and that is like at least 600 more a month, at least,” Esquenazi said. “And that's if you're gonna get a one-person studio, splitting with someone else.”
Esquenazi is an American University student and chose the location because it was close to school.
Washington, D.C. has the third-highest cost of living in the United States as of 2023, according to the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center.
Housing in the district costs 141% more than the national average, according to Redfin, a real estate company. The cost of living is 49% higher.
Esquenazi grew up in Florida and said that, in comparison, Washington is expensive to live in.
“I have friends at FSU and UF,” Esquenazi said. “And they’re paying maybe a third or even half of what I'm paying monthly for the same type of quality of an apartment.”
According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the 2022 average personal consumption expenditure in Washington was $85,732. The average personal consumption expenditure in Florida was $55,516.
Multiple property management companies and housing complexes in the district, including Wayne Knox Properties and the Berkshire apartments, did not respond to requests for interviews.
Economics Professor Daniel Lin said that the main cause of the increase in housing costs was an increase in building and zoning regulations since the 1970s. Housing regulations became more popular – and rent started to go up as well.
“Some of it was just pure self-interest, the idea that I like my neighborhood the way it is, and if we, if we allow more people to live here, I may not like the new people who live here,” Lin said.
Danny Villela lives in Rockville, Maryland with his family – just half an hour outside of the district. Villela said that he’s aware of the high cost of housing in the district.
“My dad works in real estate,” Villela said. “And he sometimes travels here to look at houses and stuff, and there's a notable difference between the market here and the market in Maryland.”
Villela said his dad never quantified the difference between the two places – but he did say it was large.
“He's never used numbers, but he has told me, ‘Don't live in D.C.,’” Villela said.
Madison DeFrancesco used to live in Silver Springs, Maryland, despite originally looking for housing in the district. Her rent was $1,200. DeFrancesco said she couldn’t afford to live in Washington.
“For someone like me, I just didn't have that kind of money to spend on housing,” DeFrancesco said. “So that's where I felt that it was a bit unattainable.”
DeFrancesco said that she believes that only people from a higher socio-economic status can afford to live in the district.
“Honestly, you feel like it comes off a little bit elitist to an extent,” DeFrancesco said. “Because you can only really afford to live and thrive there if you're of a certain of a certain tax bracket.”
Lin said that housing regulations create more damage than solutions for affordable housing. When regulations are put in place and less housing is allowed to be built, housing scarcity causes the rent to rise in turn.
“All the damage is pushed outside of that neighborhood, where other places become more expensive, there's crowding elsewhere, people have to commute a longer distance,” Lin said.
Lin said that the best way to mitigate rising housing prices is to make housing regulations on the federal level. Most housing regulations are put in place at a local level to preserve neighborhoods.
“So, it turns out, housing does have a statewide and a federal level,” Lin said. “But because most of the decision making is on the local level, only the interests of the people who live in that locality are reflected in the policy.”
There has been an 18.1% increase in the number of housing units in Washington from 2010 to 2020, according to the 2020 census. This has been an increase of 53,645 housing units over the past ten years.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said in her second inaugural address that the district needs to reconsider some of its outdated laws and regulations and work towards building more housing. Bowser said that Washington needed to produce 36,000 new units of housing in the district by 2025 to achieve this.
“A fair shot to live and thrive in D.C. also means that we are big in our thinking about creating and preserving more affordable housing,” Bowser said.
“I know some kids go to City Ridge, and that is like at least 600 more a month, at least,” Esquenazi said. “And that's if you're gonna get a one-person studio, splitting with someone else.”
Esquenazi is an American University student and chose the location because it was close to school.
Washington, D.C. has the third-highest cost of living in the United States as of 2023, according to the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center.
Housing in the district costs 141% more than the national average, according to Redfin, a real estate company. The cost of living is 49% higher.
Esquenazi grew up in Florida and said that, in comparison, Washington is expensive to live in.
“I have friends at FSU and UF,” Esquenazi said. “And they’re paying maybe a third or even half of what I'm paying monthly for the same type of quality of an apartment.”
According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the 2022 average personal consumption expenditure in Washington was $85,732. The average personal consumption expenditure in Florida was $55,516.
Multiple property management companies and housing complexes in the district, including Wayne Knox Properties and the Berkshire apartments, did not respond to requests for interviews.
Economics Professor Daniel Lin said that the main cause of the increase in housing costs was an increase in building and zoning regulations since the 1970s. Housing regulations became more popular – and rent started to go up as well.
“Some of it was just pure self-interest, the idea that I like my neighborhood the way it is, and if we, if we allow more people to live here, I may not like the new people who live here,” Lin said.
Danny Villela lives in Rockville, Maryland with his family – just half an hour outside of the district. Villela said that he’s aware of the high cost of housing in the district.
“My dad works in real estate,” Villela said. “And he sometimes travels here to look at houses and stuff, and there's a notable difference between the market here and the market in Maryland.”
Villela said his dad never quantified the difference between the two places – but he did say it was large.
“He's never used numbers, but he has told me, ‘Don't live in D.C.,’” Villela said.
Madison DeFrancesco used to live in Silver Springs, Maryland, despite originally looking for housing in the district. Her rent was $1,200. DeFrancesco said she couldn’t afford to live in Washington.
“For someone like me, I just didn't have that kind of money to spend on housing,” DeFrancesco said. “So that's where I felt that it was a bit unattainable.”
DeFrancesco said that she believes that only people from a higher socio-economic status can afford to live in the district.
“Honestly, you feel like it comes off a little bit elitist to an extent,” DeFrancesco said. “Because you can only really afford to live and thrive there if you're of a certain of a certain tax bracket.”
Lin said that housing regulations create more damage than solutions for affordable housing. When regulations are put in place and less housing is allowed to be built, housing scarcity causes the rent to rise in turn.
“All the damage is pushed outside of that neighborhood, where other places become more expensive, there's crowding elsewhere, people have to commute a longer distance,” Lin said.
Lin said that the best way to mitigate rising housing prices is to make housing regulations on the federal level. Most housing regulations are put in place at a local level to preserve neighborhoods.
“So, it turns out, housing does have a statewide and a federal level,” Lin said. “But because most of the decision making is on the local level, only the interests of the people who live in that locality are reflected in the policy.”
There has been an 18.1% increase in the number of housing units in Washington from 2010 to 2020, according to the 2020 census. This has been an increase of 53,645 housing units over the past ten years.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said in her second inaugural address that the district needs to reconsider some of its outdated laws and regulations and work towards building more housing. Bowser said that Washington needed to produce 36,000 new units of housing in the district by 2025 to achieve this.
“A fair shot to live and thrive in D.C. also means that we are big in our thinking about creating and preserving more affordable housing,” Bowser said.