I've noticed numerous stories and tweets about a building boom: for example, a recent CNBC story asserts that the number of new apartments is "at a 50-year high." Various twitterati have used this claim to support their own points of view: some claim that rents are stabilizing because of this new … [Read more...]
Are Republicans or Democrats more pro-housing? Yes.
Some weeks ago, I was participating in a Zoom discussion on NIMBYism, and someone asked: are Republicans and conservatives more pro-housing than Democrats and liberals, or less so?After examining some poll data, I discovered that the answer depends on how the question is asked. A 2023 Yougov … [Read more...]
Why lawyer salaries matter
Today's Wall Street Journal includes a front-page article about sky-high lawyer incomes. The article points out that top lawyers can earn $15 million per year or more.Why is this relevant to urbanism or markets? Because one common argument against new condos (at least in NYC) is that they … [Read more...]
On coexistence
One common NIMBY* argument is that new housing (or the wrong kind of new housing) will "destroy the neighborhood." For example, one suburban town's politicians fought zoning reform in New York by claiming that allowing multifamily housing "is a direct assault on the suburbs."Indeed, many people … [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 course, "there's no evidence it [upzoning] … [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 on a labor and consumer pool that … [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 to keep supply down because some … [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 volume related to his service as Secretary of … [Read more...]