I’m pre-disposed to find reasons to love Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern’s book *Homelessness is a Housing Problem*. But the book moved my priors in the opposite direction than the authors intended.
LATEST POSTS

Resources for Reformers: Houston’s minimum lot sizes
A concerted research effort has brought minimum lot sizes into focus as a key element in city zoning reform. Boise is looking at significant reforms. Auburn, Maine, … [Read More...]

Xiaodi Li, Misunderstood
Max Holleran's book, Richard Schragger's law review article, and randos on Twitter all find pessimistic views on housing supply from a paper by Xiaodi Li. But the … [Read More...]

The Homeownership Society Can Be Fixed
Jerusalem Demsas is an eloquent and forceful voice on housing policy. In a recent article, she asked this question: "How do we ensure that housing is both appreciating in value for homeowners but cheap enough for all would-be homeowners to buy in?" She … [Read More...]
Do The Cities Need The Suburbs?
Aaron Renn has an interesting article in Governing. He suggests that even though urban cores are responsible for a significant chunk of the regional tax base, "[t]he city is dependent on the suburbs, too." In particular, he notes that downtowns are dependent … [Read More...]

Welcome Michael Nahas
Market Urbanism is proud to welcome Michael Nahas as a new writer who will bring an Austin perspective to the blog. Michael's Twitter handle is @MichaelDNahas, and he also blogs at City Econ.Here's a short interview we did over email.Emily: How … [Read More...]
The fallacy of total rent regulation
One of the most-common beliefs many leftists in America hold is that the staggering increase in apartment rents is not a result of not building enough supply but rather a combination of greedy landlords, corporations buying out rental properties, and landlords … [Read More...]

Should governments nudge land assembly?
By Salim Furth
For a reading group, I recently read two papers about the costs and (in)efficiencies around land assembly. One advocated nudging small landowners into land assembly; the other is an implicit caution against doing so.Graduated Density ZoningAlthough … [Read More...]
The conspiracy theory of rent increases
An article in Curbed by Lane Brown has gotten much publicity in Twitter. The article makes two factual claims: 1) New York City is still losing households, and thus there was no reason for rents to go back up in 2021-22; and 2) landlords are conspiring … [Read More...]
Herbert Hoover reconsidered
In recent years, I have thought of Herbert Hoover as sort of an urban policy villian, thanks to his promotion of zoning. But I recently ran across one of his memoirs in our school's library. (Hoover's memoirs were a multivolume set, and this particular … [Read More...]
YIMBYs and liberals
The pro-housing movement (more colloquially known as "YIMBYs" as an acronym for "Yes In My Back Yard" can't catch a break from either the Left or the Right. On the Left, pundits like to "expose" them as supporters of big business. But conservatives don't … [Read More...]
Archives
Top Posts
- Only 2 Ways to Fight Gentrification (you're not going to like one of them)
- Resources for Reformers: Houston's minimum lot sizes
- Book Review: HIAHP
- Ranking State Land Use Regulations
- The Limits of the Singapore Housing Model
- Are Houston’s Deed Restrictions “Basically Zoning”?
- Why Is Japanese Zoning More Liberal Than US Zoning?
- Subsidizing Suburbia: A forgotten history of how the government created suburbia
- The conspiracy theory of rent increases
- No, 'New Urbanism' And 'Smart Growth' Are Not The Same