Luke Blocher

Cincinnati fan & advocate, in all ways.

[Luke Blocher @lukeblocher]

Happy birthday to our great, unfinished symphony. And a prayer that we find the way to write its next verses together.

[Luke Blocher @lukeblocher]

I'd like to understand how @IamCPS weighs the safety of kids walking to school in the cold against the well-being of those same kids, and 1000s of others, who are home-maybe alone; maybe w/o the food they get from school-not learning or socializing. This is a genuine question.

[Derek Thompson @DKThomp]

Austin is building housing like crazy.

Rents are down 7%.

But rather than frame this achievement as a win for renters—or for the arg that housing prices respond to supply growth—WSJ frames it pretty clearly as bad news across the board.

[Luke Blocher @lukeblocher]

A reminder that simply *making it easier* is a big lever local governments can pull to get more affordable housing. https://t.co/XP6OdCc4F7

[Luke Blocher @lukeblocher]

Supply is not everything - we will always need gap subsidy for deeply affordable housing. But this is a good reminder that part of the solution really is just building way more housing.

[Jay Parsons @jayparsons]

When you build "luxury" new apartments in big numbers, the influx of supply puts downward pressure on rents at all price points -- even in the lowest-priced Class C rentals. Here's evidence of that happening right now:

There are 12 U.S. markets where Class C rents are falling at least 6% YoY. What is the common denominator? You guessed it: Supply. All 12 have supply expansion rates ABOVE the U.S. average.

There's no demand issue in any of these 12 markets. They're all among the absorption leaders nationally -- places like Austin, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Atlanta and Raleigh/Durham, Boise, etc. But they all have a lot of new supply.

Simply put: Supply is doing what it's supposed to do when we build A LOT of apartments. It's a process academics call "filtering." New pricey apartments are pulling up higher-income renters out of moderately priced Class B units, which in turn cut rents to lure Class C renters, and on down the line it goes.

Less anyone still in doubt, here's another factoid: Where are Class C rents growing most? You guessed it (I hope!) -- in markets with little new supply. Class C rent growth topped 5% in 18 of the nation's 150 largest metro areas, and nearly all of them have limited new apartment supply.

Most new construction tends to be Class A "luxury" because that's what pencils out due to high cost of everything from land to labor to materials to impact fees to insurance to taxes, etc.

So critics will say: "We don't need more luxury apartments!"

Yes, you do. Because when you build "luxury" apartments at scale, you will put downward pressure on rents at all price points.

Spread the word.

[Luke Blocher @lukeblocher]

You’ve simply GOT to love these Bengals. #WhoDey

[Luke Blocher @lukeblocher]

An excellent, to-the-point explanation of how homelessness and housing affordability more broadly are impacted by a regulatory system that makes it very hard to build housing.

[Luke Blocher @lukeblocher]

I’ve attended plenty of confs full of happy talk w/o depth, detail, or realism. @CMReggieHarris and his partners (incl @CinDevFund) did something very different @ Black Developers Conf: real talk of how development and finance actually work. This is so necessary and so valuable

[Luke Blocher @lukeblocher]

To bang, or not to bang: that is never the question. #VottoStillBangs

[Luke Blocher @lukeblocher]

@CincinnatiPort @HabitatCincy Everyone who wants more housing in Hamilton County should be joining hands to do everything we collectively can to make building housing easier. Zoning, permitting, funding, everything. Let's BUILD!

[Luke Blocher @lukeblocher]

Today we @CinDevFund announced the first phase of aff housing funding through our partnership with Hamilton County. 1) thank you @aliciareece, @DeniseDriehaus, + @summerow_dumas for the commitment of ARPA funds that made this possible! 2) here's a 🧵with more /

[Cincinnati Business Courier @BusinessCourier]

Two dozen Hamilton County communities will see more than 550 new or preserved affordable homes under a plan announced by the Cincinnati Development Fund, Hamilton County and private developers. https://t.co/XgQTE1E8Ri

[Luke Blocher @lukeblocher]

@CincinnatiPort @HabitatCincy We can and must keep at this because the cold hard fact is housing development - and especially affordable housing development - is hard! Costs are higher, revenues are lower, and the funding sources are hard to pin down. So I will end this 🧵with a simple plea: