How the US Made Affordable Homes Illegal

A young person, or family, who wants to purchase a starter home in the US, or for that matter even rent an apartment, will often run into the fact that people don't want starter homes and apartments in their neighborhoods. Poor people might move in! NIMBY! This is a legacy of old racist policies that have become ubiquitous and affect all of us, from billion-dollar companies who want to hire young employees to the elderly to groups of lower-class people like teachers who want to live near their schools.  

And this is all beyond the fact that developers can make a lot more money building shoddy houses for the rich than building shoddy houses for the not-rich. They make even less profit doing a remodel, which is why you can't hire anyone to do it.