Client: Blue Ridge Homebuilders Association, Inc., Charlottesville, VA
Summary: To use my analytical and graphic skills to help this home builder association to educate governments in Central Virginia how their regulatory decisions affect retail home prices
The result: The BRHBA was delighted with the 9-frame infographic presentation I created, which has been used in numerous city halls and county government hearings
Contents
(1) Background
(2) The infographic slide show I created for the BRHBA
(1) Background
“Affordability” is a major point of contention in new housing developments – and aside from market economics, the biggest determining factor in the price of new housing is the decisions made by local governments. While elected officials often say they want housing to be “affordable,” they often make decisions and establish policies that drive the price of new housing up – not down. Then, either through ignorance or malice, they end up blaming the lack of “affordable” housing on the free market, “greedy” developers, etc.
The Blue Ridge Home Builders Association (BRHBA) in Charlottesville, VA, wished to make a positive, benevolent presentation to local planning & zoning commissions throughout Central Virginia, to demonstrate how various governmental land-use decisions affect the “bottom-line” prices of new housing.
I was retained by the BRHBA, via a referral from the Free Enterprise Forum, to develop a series of graphics that would profile a community that had already been built (Townwood), and how different governmental decisions regarding “open space,” multi-family vs. single-family units, and other variables would have ultimately affected each lot’s retail price, as well as other development and finance factors.
(2) The infographic slide show I created for the BRHBA
Working with the BRHBA, builders and finance executives, and the Free Enterprise Forum, I developed this infographic slide show: