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Comments
We need a land tranfer fee, dedicated to affordable housing, and it should escalate significantly higher for transfers of the same property within 3 years, to discourage flipping.
There was a bill last session (HB2198) to require better reporting and transparency around the program, and hopefully force them to get more projects funded.
Guess what? "Moderate Democrats" in the State Senate killed it.
See http://www.bendbulletin.com/opinion/335536…
http://kotaku.com/5990496/your-guide-to-ja…
The artificial shortage of land caused by METRO and enforced by several so called "environmental" groups led by the 1000 fiends of Oregon.
It is just basic economics that reducing the supply of land increases the price. see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_and_d…
One of METRO’s reports even said that we have to raise land prices to get builders to build more density:
“If land values stay low,density does not work financially. If the public sector wants the private sector to build more densely it must do something to affect demand and supply conditions so that land prices increase” from page 8 of http://www.oregonmetro.gov/sites/default/f…