Affordable Housing
Can Congress Get 'YIMBY Grants' Right?
Plus: The House passes housing reform, Florida advances ADUs, and Zohran Mamdani hosts show trials for bad landlords.
Housing Policy Can Be Win-Win
Allowing more homes to be built on existing residential land would be good for homeowners, homebuyers, and homebuilders.
Trump: 'I Want To Drive Housing Prices Up'
The president says he would rather increase prices for homeowners than drive prices down.
Trump Issues Order Cracking Down on Corporate Homeownership
The president's order is not the comprehensive ban on large investor–owned housing that he promised. But it could still have a chilling effect on the single-family rental market.
The Great Zoning Crackdown on Data Centers
Plus: The Trump administration wants to roll back "disparate impact" regulations, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul wants to roll back environmental review regulations, and L.A. waives fees for wildfire rebuilds.
The Year of the Starter Home
Lawmakers across the country are introducing bills that would make it easier to build smaller single-family homes on small lots.
Barring Institutional Investors From Buying Homes Won't Make Housing More Affordable - and Would Likely Make Things Worse
There is no evidence that institutional investors increase prices. Barring them from the market could actually exacerbate the housing crisis.
Is Zohran Mamdani Coming Around to Housing Deregulation?
New York's new mayor has moved away from some of his far-left beliefs, acknowledging that private businesses play an important role in homebuilding.
Trump Blames Illegal Immigrants for High Housing Prices. Blame Zoning Instead.
Low-skilled immigrants would expand the supply of housing more than they increase demand, if local governments would just allow new construction.
Non-Paywalled Version of My Washington Examiner Article on "Foot Voting, Housing, and Affordability"
The Cato Institute has posted one on its website.
What America Can Learn From Japanese Housing
On housing policy, America needs to be less fascist King Kong and more free-market Godzilla.
My New Washington Examiner Article on "Foot Voting, Housing, and Affordability"
We can make housing more affordable and empower people to "vote with their feet" by curbing exclusionary zoning. Left and right should support that instead of counterproductive snake oil like rent control, tariffs, and deportations.
A 50-Year Mortgage Won't Make Homes Affordable
Ultra-long mortgages create the illusion of affordability but lock borrowers into decades of extra interest because leaders won’t fix the supply crunch.
The Trump Administration's Latest Housing 'Fix' Could Inflate Another Bubble
Socializing risk to subsidize demand isn't a solution to the housing crisis, but it is a good start to another financial crisis.
The 50-Year Mortgage: Completely Fine or a Total Flop?
Mortgage experts are divided on the wisdom of a 50-year mortgage. No one seems to think it's the key to making homeownership affordable.
Federalist Society National Lawyers Convention Panel on Zoning, Property Rights, and the Housing Crisis
I participated along with James Burling (Pacific Legal Foundation), Prof. Peter Byrne (Georgetown), and Prof. Sara Bronin (George Washington University).
New York Voters Say Yes to Faster Housing Approvals
Does that mean they want more housing generally?
New Jersey Sticks With a Conventional Democrat
Mikie Sherrill will mostly continue business as usual—but with the possibility of some regulatory reform.
New Jersey Town Tentatively Agrees to Not Seize 175-Year-Old Family Farm
After a nationwide uproar over Cranbury, New Jersey's plan to seize Andy Henry's farm, the township says it's found another site to place a planned affordable housing development.
Zohran Mamdani's Socialist Housing Plan Could Crash New York's Rickety Rental Market
The city has the nation’s most regulated housing sector and the largest stock of government-owned and subsidized housing, and yet progressives blame its real estate troubles on the free market.
The Housing Hero Gotham Deserved
Plus: New York's expensive new stove regulations, Los Angeles rent controls, and the housing policy implications of a federal shutdown.
YIMBY Reforms Win Big In State Legislatures in 2025
In 2025, momentum behind state-level supply-side housing reforms accelerated almost everywhere.
In California, YIMBYs Pass Holy Grail Zoning Reform
Plus: San Francisco preliminarily passes citywide upzoning, a New Jersey town backs off family farm seizure, and YIMBY martial law ruled illegal in Hawaii.
The Trump Administration's Fake Housing Emergency
The results of America's overly burdensome housing regulations aren't great. But they're not an "emergency."
All You Need Is Love (and Deregulation)
Building our way to affordable cities does not require a government-led "post-neoliberal" approach to housing development.
My New Boston Globe Article on Why Massachusetts Should Reject Rent Control, and Instead End Exclusionary Zoning
Rent control would only make the housing crisis worse. Zoning reform would make things better.
Andrew Cuomo Proposes 'Zohran's Law' To Fix the Unfairness of Rent Law Cuomo Signed
Plus: Why Blackstone is good, actually, and a Georgia judge rules for tiny homes.
San Francisco's All-Electric Ordinance Will Make Housing More Expensive
San Francisco’s new ordinance would impose all-electric building standards for new construction projects or buildings undergoing “major renovations.”
Minnesota Town Denies Family Permission To Build Affordable Housing Unit on Their Property
The Pepin family is suing the City of Blaine after the City Council used dubious reasoning to deny a permit for additional housing on their property.
One Big Beautiful Housing Supply Bill
Congress considers a consensus housing supply bill while the White House cracks down on the homeless.
Is Housing 'Out of Reach' for More Than Half of Workers?
Plus: Single-stair reform in Nashville, an inclusionary zoning lawsuit in Seattle, and a zoning-created full-service Popeyes in Illinois.
Rent Prices Are Falling Fast in America's Most Pro-Housing Cities
From January 2024 to January 2025, average rent in Sarasota fell from $3,290 to $1,886 per month.
Seattle Property Owners Challenge Program That Charges 'Affordable Housing' Fees for Building New Homes
A new lawsuit alleges that the city's Mandatory Housing Affordability program unconstitutionally penalizes property owners just for trying to build housing.
Barack Obama Wants Democrats To Be the YIMBY Party. That's Easier Said Than Done.
The housing crisis is bad for national Democrats. At the state level, it's a political winner.
New Jersey Court Strikes Down Town's Use of Eminent Domain To Skirt Affordable Housing Mandates
Despite the setback, Middletown Township is taking the case to the state supreme court.
Pacific Legal Foundation Symposium on the 100th Anniversary of Euclid v. Ambler Realty
The symposium is seeking submissions.
NIMBY Lawsuit Accidentally Abolishes City's Entire Zoning Code
Plus: The Supreme Court declines to hear major eviction moratorium case, Maine passes zoning reform, and why tourist traps are good, actually.
California Passes Important New YIMBY Housing Law
The new legislation exempts most new urban housing construction from the previously often stifling CEQA law. YIMBY ("yes in my backyard") advocates are cheering.
California Enacts Sweeping Exemption to Development-Killing Environmental Law
Plus: Real rent decreases in New York City, the return of missing middle housing in Virginia, and how everyone's a socialist on housing in New York.
New Jersey Towns Face Setback in Lawsuit Against State's Affordable Housing Mandate
Despite this setback, a coalition of municipalities is challenging the state’s housing program in federal court.
How Texas Beat California on Housing
YIMBY policies in Texas have led to lower rents and increasing supply. The same cannot be said for California.
The Problem With Mike Lee's Public Lands Proposal Is That It Doesn't Sell Off Enough Land
America's housing shortage is worst in Western states. That's also where the federal government owns the most land.
On Housing, All New York Politicians Are Socialists
Allegedly sane, centrist opponents of New York City's socialist mayoral candidate are all too happy to regulate rental housing into the ground.
Stealing the Farm
Plus: housing reform is killed in Connecticut, bonus ADUs are gutted in San Diego, and two decades of Supreme Court-enabled eminent domain abuse.
My Forthcoming Article on " Public Use, Exclusionary Zoning, and Democracy"
It is part of the Yale Journal on Regulation Symposium on the 20th Anniversary of Kelo v. City of New London.
New Study Highlights Housing Shortages Caused by Regulatory Barriers to Construction
The study by leading housing economists Edward Glaeser and Joseph Gyourko finds there are 15 milion fewer housing units in the US than there would be if construction in 2000-2020 had continued at the same pace as in 1980-2000.
