That's definitely true.
Ultimately without subsidies the newest and shiniest will almost always go to those with the most money. That's capitalism.
The best way to ensure we have affordable housing in 20 years is to be pushing new units online now, that will be affordable housing down the line.
That's our problem in many areas, that that wasnt built. Particularly in downtown areas where there wasnt much growth for awhile, but i also imagine the pipeline of new units grinding to a halt 10 years ago for a few years probably didnt help that either.
True. Most of the brand new homes being built are more expensive, but there's a market for that. People are moving out of the homes they bought 10 years ago and moving farther north into newer/bigger homes. That also opens up good homes for people to move into though.
I bought a house that was built in 97 and we love it. It was reasonably priced but still in decent shape (except for the deck that we had to replace).
Similar scenarios are occurring throughout the suburbs. People who bought decent houses in West Des Moines are moving to newer houses in Waukee and their previous house is generally reasonably priced for someone else.
Low income is a harder issue to tackle, because even without zoning restrictions, not a lot of builders are building houses for under 200K. You are going to end up with an older house if you want a single family home, or you will end up in a town home.