I would be interested in knowing just what they consider "affordable", and by whom. We live in
Vernal, and there is virtually nothing under $200,000 here, old or new. If we hadn't bought our house 3 years ago, we could not afford to buy it now. Housing costs--and rentals, which are worse here--everywhere are just crazy. How are our children going to be able to afford the great American dream of owning a home?

This article is strange, considering Park City municipal has been purging itself of employees who already live within their city limits, and often in the affordable housing units, in favor of commuters from SLC. If they city is really concerned with this, then why don't they start in their own house.

What cities, counties, and state government needs to do is regulate and control developer pricing and land costs. The price of a home is set by developrs and builders to get the highest possible price from a home regardless of actual costs. Thus we have home value inflation. Developers and builders should be restricted on the amount of profit they establish for themselves when pricing a home. Land and home cost should be limited to a fixed amount above actual cost. And developers should not be allowed to arbitrally rezone land changes after the purchase of land. Zoning change request for developement should be before land is purchased in the knowledge they can get it rezoned very easily and at very high profit. Profiteering is rampant among developers by overpricing the land and cost of building a home. Affordable housing is such a joke and government having to subsidize means there is a problem that needs correcting. When government steps in and pays cost all this is being passed on to develpers who know and negotiate fixing home prices at excessive levels. We need to control profiteering and its time government stepped in with new laws and regulations.

"The homes in the program are allowed to appreciate only 3 percent per year..."

Exactly how does that work? Does that mean if you buy an affordable for $100,000 you can only sell it to someone for $103,000 after a year?

Do you know how swiftly this opens up the possibility of side payments, bribes, or old-boy networking if people are competing to buy below market property?

And how does it work for HELOCs and second mortgages? Do appraisers limit the value on these affordable homes for leveraging?

I was involved with a similar program in Santa Barbara, where the city was in charge of the lottery for builder-mandated below-market housing. Amazingly, most of the lottery "winners" were city workers or had some connection to the city.

Bob, that is an excellent idea, I think you should become the developer to implement your ideas!

The sad truth is that developers and homebuilders take a huge financial risk to develop property and build homes, if you don't believe that, then you should try doing it yourself.

Yes, they may make good money when things are on the upswing, but when housing is like it is now, even some of the largest, best capitalized developers and builders are going bankrupt.

Bob, I can only assume that you don't work in an industry that is for profit- but if I am wrong, perhaps we should examine your company's "profiteering" ways!

FYI- landowners control the land cost, since they decide what they would be willing to sell the land for. They could rezone it before sale if they were so inclined.

Thom

But we shouldn't regulate just homebuilder profits. We need to regulate the profits of all businesses including Big Oil, Big Food, Big Software, Big Auto, and Big Everything Else.

Marx was right. Excessive profits need to be eliminated. In fact, government ownership of the means of production is the best way to eliminate private profits altogether. That may be necessary if profit regulation encourages greedy businessmen to forgo building in Park City.

Why not stop trying to control the price. Think about it, if Park City becomes too pricy for the average person to live there, then eventually the average person won't work there. That or else the average person will be paid more so that they can either afford to travel there for work or live there themselves. Have some faith in the market, the government is rarely the solution, it is more often the problem itself.

Park City: Funny how it's the super rich that are the only ones who have the time and resources to go complain about open space. The rich hoard their open space so that there can be no land left. All this purchasing of open space has eliminated huge chunks of land so that has greatly increased the value of all that land left in the city which isn't much. The City Gov't bought all that land. So all you ignorants that want the Gov't to take over are clueless. That's the last people on earth we want running and regulating things. It's all these left wing hack jobs that want huge massive Gov't to take over all our lives. Take all the land available to live. Take away all our choices for healthcare, increase our taxes because Gov't is our solution to everything! Everything Gov't touches that should be private they completely screw up. Gov't should ensure our rights and liberties, defend us and keep us safe, and regulate big business but not put it out of business. Let wing hacks jobs are clueless like the councilman that things affordable housing and open space work together.

It's very simple. Eliminate ALL BORROWED MONEY. Everything must be payed for with cash. Everything would get very cheap. Houses would drop by at least two-thirds.

Now tell me we are not an empire BUILT ON DEBT.

Marx was right? We need to regulate the economy to the point were every price is set by the government so that companies have no incentive to produce better products? There is a reason that land is more expensive in Park City than it is in the West Desert (if it were developed) and that is demand. If you had purchased a house years ago in Park City, you wouldn't be complaining about how prices have skyrocketed.
I am sure that Bob G. complains about how woefully inefficient the government is at spending all of its tax revenue (which we work to earn) but wants to dramatically increase it through adding in organizations that control and monitor the price of everything. You can't regulate the price of commodities independent from wages, and neither of those options work in the real world. Who wants to work longer, harder hours with no incentive for promotion?

How can the true American dream of hard work, privet enterprise and independent small company ownership compete with big government wages, low performance expectations and nothing less than welfare benefits for all employees. Big government is slowly robing the American people of the very thing this country was founded on, and it is happening in a way most people can not detect. By the time we see what is happening it will be to late. Big government has never been a friend to private industry, because big government historically ends up taking it over with its promises of wealth, better management and equality for all. Government is not the answer.