In Commonwealth Magazine, the publication of the Virginia Association of REALTORS, there is an article this month that discusses the effect of impact fees on home affordability.

It quotes a study from the NAHB of saying that each $1,000 increase in the costs of home ownership reduces the number of prospective buyers by 217,000.

The implication of the article is that fees such as higher construction permit fees, tap fees, proffers required frombuilders and such things as the new taxes contemplated by some northern VA counties to pay for infrastructure are a bad thing.

Here's the problem with that implication. All of these fees, taxes, etc. are, in their own way, a way to offset the increased infrastructure required as new homes are built and new residents are added to an area. Increased population requires additional roads, schools, hospitals, sewers, etc.

Since all of these things have costs associated with them, the money has to come from somewhere. If you're not going to get that money from the builders making money off selling those homes, or from the new homeowners who, after all, will be the people utilizing those new services, who should pay?

The only people left, it would seem, are the existing homeowners. They would see an increase in their own taxes to help fund new infrastructure for the benefit of other people. It's hard to see anyone jumping on that bandwagon!

No one likes fees or taxes, regardless of their political persuasion, regardless of whether they use the services that those fees fund. But you can not simply continue to add population without infrastructure. And you can't expect existing home owners to absorb the entire burden. You're asking for an anti-growth backlash!

"Even modest impact fees can have a dramatic effect on housing affordability," says Jerry Howard, the CEO of NAHB.

I'm still waiting for his suggestion on who, then, should pay for the infrastructure!

I think we've all seen what happens when no one pays and construction continues and the services aren't there for the newcomers. Is everyone enjoying their commute from this area into northern VA and DC?

So, what do you think? How do we pay for infrastructure?