The bubble in McKinney, Texas, is a case of how a good thing creates some bad effects – or more specifically, how development causes congestion (and housing crisis).
Oh, you missed the memo?
The Dallas Morning News reported it this week. The gist is, job creation has skyrocketed in the area: over 100,000 new jobs per year.
That’s huge. And that’s a good thing, right?
Of course! Except that it has also created a grave shortage of new homes in the area.
The area needs 50,000 new homes yearly to catch up with the job creation explosion. But builders are expected to ever be able to build only about half of that figure this year.
You see the problem?
And now – just last Monday – citizens wanted to buy houses in McKinney so badly that a dozen of them – including an eight-month pregnant woman – camped out overnight, waiting to be the first in line to lock in their lot purchase in a new subdivision.
Is this a good thing? Or a crisis?
Well, we’ve heard and seen many shoppers camp outside overnight just to buy damn cheap iPhones and TVs on Black Friday. That sounds like thrill seeking to me.
But for houses… if people are camping outside overnight to buy houses, that doesn’t sound like a good thing. It sounds like a crisis.
And thanks to the shortage of houses in the area, home costs have soared. Add the costs of cleaning the house, doing necessary repairs and furnishing it, and the big picture becomes clearer.
Just last year, MONEY Magazine declared McKinney, Texas, the number one best place to live in the U.S.
Hmmmn! I wonder if this can still be said about the area, now that congestion is the name of the game and there aren’t enough houses to go around.
Thanks, MONEY Magazine, but I don’t want to live there.