As various housing reform bills work their way through the lawmaking process in American state legislatures, several new legal challenges to local land use and zoning ordinances are simultaneously underway in state and federal courts. Among these courtroom efforts are challenges to occupancy restrictions, short-term rental bans, inclusionary zoning and single-family zoning itself. On May […]
What’s Scott Alexander asking, anyway?
In a pair of posts, Scott Alexander goads his mostly-YIMBY readers by claiming to believe that density is likely to increase prices.To quantify his readers' … [Read More...]
Cataloguing California’s Cornucopia of Land Use Legislation
The Terner Center for Housing Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley has released a policy brief summarizing the effect on housing production of the … [Read More...]
Another of these studies that don’t mean what some people thinks it means
A group of researchers at the Urban Institute came out with a new study on zoning and housing affordability. At governing.com, a headline about the study screamed: "Zoning Changes Have Small Impact on Housing Supply." The Governing writer's spin was, of … [Read More...]
Rent regulation in MoCo
In my home county, Montgomery County, Maryland, rent control is on the agenda after County Executive Marc Elrich and a county council majority each released competing proposals to cap annual rent increases.Adam Pagnucco responded with a series of posts at … [Read More...]
Book Review: HIAHP
Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern's book Homelessness is a Housing Problem filled such a useful niche that even before I read it, I had started referring to it by acronym. But, like Missing Middle Housing, this book moved my priors in the opposite … [Read More...]
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, and Helena, Montana, did away with minimums in some zones. And even state legislatures are … [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 paper is asking a narrow question and yielding an optimistic answer. This post tries to provide … [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...]