How Stressed is KC's Housing Market?

Relatively, not very. Of course, things still aren't exactly rosy, but in this recent analysis by the Wall Street Journal, out of the 49 most populous U.S. metro areas, only three had lower "housing-stress indicators" than Kansas City. Factors considered included percentage of income spent on housing, percentage of population without health insurance, and percentage of population not working. The Miami area was rated as the most stressed, with three California metros close behind. Perhaps this is yet another indicator that much of so-called fly-over country is actually, in the words of urban development scholar/commentator and recent LWREC speaker Joel Kotkin, a "zone of sanity."

Time is Money

LWREC research from early 2010 examined the ways in which time delays in building permit processing affect overall project costs in several KC area communities. Links here and here provide some coverage of the report by local media. Given the slowdown in new projects, city planning departments may now be able to take pause to evaluate development approval policies in search of improved means of creating the best built environment possible while avoiding unintended consequences in the form of undesirable costs. Research like that by the LWREC is a great place to start to understand the issues. Economists Edward Glaeser of Harvard and Joseph Gyourko of Wharton, among others, have been on the forefront of similar research in recent years.