Starter home reforms

After decades of background study and advocacy – see here for a research compilation – legislators in Maine and Texas passed bills that allow starter homes by putting guardrails on local minimum lot sizes.…

Official land prices

A Vietnamese business paper provides a fascinating window on land prices – official versus market – in an economy that has partially transitioned from socialism to markets: Hanoi has been collecting public feedback on…

Home prices rose everywhere

Are rising prices in Kalamazoo a symptom of “climate refugees” moving to the cool, Rust Belt uplands? That’s a hypothesis put forward by a friend who works in the climate-insurance-housing cost nexus. It’s a…

Hot takes and Pensées, #UEA2025

Exterior staircases, Montreal

I frequently reference my post summarizing the interesting research at last year’s Urban Economics Association conference. This year was as insight rich as ever. And the Montreal setting was truly special – it’s a…