Yes, it is Texas and that is what Texans want. And people who live in Houston and want to live in denser neighborhoods have that option too. There are plenty of high-rise buildings everywhere too.ohio jones wrote: ↑Wed Jan 31, 2024 11:43 pmYeah, here's what Houston is really like:Ken wrote: ↑Wed Jan 31, 2024 10:55 pmThat is what HOAs are for. They aren't going away any time soon regardless of zoning. And cities without zoning like Houston have endless HOA-governed subdivisions because that is what the market demands. HOAs are the free market solution for people who want to live in a neighborhood that is micro-regulated.
Wikivoyage wrote:Houston is the largest city in the United States without any appreciable zoning. While there is some small measure of zoning in the form of ordinances, deed restrictions, and land use regulations, real estate development in Houston is only constrained by the will and the pocketbook of real estate developers. Traditionally, Houston politics and law are strongly influenced by real estate developers; at times, the majority of city council seats have been held by them. This arrangement has made Houston a very sprawled-out and very automobile-dependent city....
Many areas can be downright hostile to pedestrians and bikers as sidewalks are privately built (if at all) and roads are littered with massive potholes. The city is primarily built on the energy industry and nearly everyone owns a car and drives everywhere they go, even to a destination less than a mile away.
Meanwhile it is 290% cheaper to live in Houston than ultra-zoned San Francisco despite the fact that Houston has nearly 3-times the population: https://www.nerdwallet.com/cost-of-livi ... ancisco-ca
The law of supply and demand works in real estate too. Houston has plenty of supply because they don't artificially restrict it like in west coast cities.
Per the subject of this thread, if you are trying to raise a large family on a single modest income, which city is going to provide you with the best options for putting a roof over your head?
And the potholes aren't due to single family zoning or the lack of it. It is because they build roads cheaply on top of swamp land that gets repeatedly flooded every time they get a monsoon rain.
And note, I'm not actually advocating no zoning or standards. I'm advocating less single family zoning which makes housing more expensive and fosters endless sprawl. Zoning to keep toxic waste dumps and oil refineries out of residential neighborhoods is still a good thing. And it also doesn't mean we can't mandate things like sidewalks, bike paths, and safe streets of the sort we used to build before we got addicted to the automobile. Texas chooses not to but then that's Texas and one reason we left. If we ever returned (which we won't) I'd live in Fort Worth or San Antonio which both have lots of nice walkable neighborhoods.