A lot is going on in the real estate and housing industry and America's Zoning rules is one that interests me the most guys.
You know how tough it can be to find a place to live these days, right? It is as though everyone is looking for homes, but there are not enough of them.
And when you eventually find one, it is very expensive! Well, the fact is that there are some big reasons behind this housing mayhem: zoning rules.
Let me break that down for you. Zoning rules are like home construction police officers in real life. There are over 30,000 sets of such on every corner of America and it could mean millions of ways of saying what you can or can’t do with your land.
What’s even wilder about this story is that zoning codes can be really confusing and out-of-date sometimes.
For example, some places only allow one type of house per acre while others prohibit anything except single family homes. And guess what? Some rules are even racist! Yes – they are leftovers from long time ago when things were extremely unfair.
However, you know what? Luckily, a team of intelligent individuals is fashioning something called the National Zoning Atlas. It looks like one large atlas that contains all the zoning regulations. In addition to this, they are converting all the difficult zoning language into plain words for everyone to understand.
I feel this atlas is revolutionary. As if shining light on those secret rules and saying “Hey, let’s make these more reasonable and simpler!” And guess what else? The people themselves use it to enhance things in their own towns. For instance, in Milford Connecticut where a woman used the atlas to persuade her town to amend an illogical rule concerning building guest houses.
However, this is not simply about comprehension. It is equally about making life better for all people. For instance, in Montana during the outbreak of the pandemic, housing prices went through the roof. They used the atlas to demonstrate that their zoning rules were as same as those in California and that is not good news if you’re looking for affordable homes!
But I understand that atlas won’t fix everything overnight. There are still some people who wish to keep things unchanged due to their fear of being challenged by new things.
However, I think knowledge is power. When we know what’s happening with these zoning laws, we can begin to make actual progress.
Therefore, while they may sound like boring regulations, zoning guidelines are highly significant. Where we live, how much we pay for our houses and even how our neighborhoods appear all depend on them.
And with National Zoning Atlas at hand, there’s an opportunity to improve everyone’s situation a little bit better than it already is right now. It’s almost like having a GPS to a brighter future – and I am all for it!