Zoning Board Orders Longtime Tenants' Homes Dismantled
Plus: the Supreme Court weighs housing fees and homelessness, YIMBYs bet on smaller, more focused reforms, and a new paper finds legalizing more housing does in fact bring costs down.
Affordable Housing
Rent Control for the Rich
Plus: Fort Collins tries passing zoning reform for the third time, Coastal California cracks down on Airbnbs, and state lawmakers try to unban rent control.
Welfare Is Great—for the Welfare Bureaucrats
The clients get a confusing maze and a lot of incentives to stay on welfare.
12 Increasingly Off-the-Wall Housing Reforms
American cities and states passed a lot of good, incremental housing reforms in 2023. In 2024, we'd benefit from trying out some long shot ideas.
Controversy Over an Important Article Finding Large Negative Effects of Zoning
Economist Brian Greaney may have found serious methodological errors in a much-cited 2019 article by Enrico Moretti and Chang-Tai Hsieh.
The Best of Reason: The Abundance Agenda Promises Everything to Everyone All at Once
Some progressives want to remove bureaucratic obstacles to growth—in the service of Democrats and big government.
The Abundance Agenda Promises Everything to Everyone All at Once
Some progressives want to remove bureaucratic obstacles to growth—in the service of Democrats and big government.
'Unhinged' 'Scum' Ramaswamy Shows His YIMBY Side
"Land use restrictions are constricting the supply of housing," said Ramaswamy at tonight's GOP presidential debate in Miami.
House GOP Threatens To Kill 'Baby YIMBY Grant' Program After First Year
The Democrat-controlled Senate meanwhile is proposing to expand the program.
Bill Maher Attacks 'the Real Deep State' of Government Regulators, Administrators, and Zoning Officers
The comedian blames America's endless reams of regulatory red tape for slowing down new wind farms, housing, and public toilets.
Damning New Audit Finds San Francisco Takes 3 Years To Approve New Housing
The state housing officials who performed the audit describe San Francisco's approval process as a "notoriously complex and cumbersome" mess.
St. Paul Passes Politically Practical, Economically Unproductive Zoning Reforms
Missing middle housing reforms are getting more popular. But they're not getting much more productive.
Cities Want 'YIMBY Grants' To Pay for Bureaucratic Busy Work
Cities are asking for federal zoning-reform dollars to pay for plans that might never pass.
Volokh Conspiracy Gets Results on Immigration and Zoning Policy
Federal and New York City officials recently adopted policy changes on migrant work permits and zoning reform similar to those advocated here (though probably not because I advocated them!)..
The Hidden Failures of Social Housing in 'Red Vienna'
A new report details how the city's famed social housing system is suffering from diminishing affordability, deteriorating quality, and funding shortfalls.
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green Backtracks on YIMBY Emergency Order
In the face of lawsuits and accusations of attempted "genocide," Green is restoring many homebuilding regulations he suspended in July.
YIMBY Progress In California
The state legislature recently passed significant new laws constraining exclusionary zoning, thereby making it easier for property owners to build much-needed new housing on their land.
California Legislature Passes Slew of YIMBY Reforms
Two bills approved by the Legislature this week will make it easier to build affordable housing on church land and in coastal areas.
What's the Libertarian Answer to New York's Migrant Crisis?
Plus: A listener asks the editors to name America's unsung or undersung heroes.
Critics Sue Over Hawaii's Housing Deregulation, Calling It Attempted 'Genocide'
A coalition including the state ACLU, Sierra Club, and Native Hawaiian cultural groups argue Gov. Josh Green vastly exceeded his emergency powers when he waived most regulations on homebuilding.
Judge Rules Minneapolis' Zoning Reforms Are Getting Too Much Housing Built
Plus: Political campaigns will have to disclose if they use AI in their ads, the effort to rehabilitate rent control rumbles on, and more...
California Coastal Cities' Housing Plan: Build Elsewhere
Republican-controlled Huntington Beach has sued the state government to stop enforcement of state housing mandates.
To Tackle Highest Housing Costs in the Country, Hawaii's Governor Declares YIMBY Martial Law
An emergency proclamation by Gov. Josh Green offers developers the opportunity to route around almost all regulations on building homes.
New York's Migrant Crisis is Caused by a Combination of Federal Work Restrictions and Local Zoning Policy
It's the predictable result of the combination of federal regulations barring asylum seekers from working legally and local policies offering free housing, while severely restricting new housing construction.
A New Bill Would Extend California's YIMBY Revolution to Heavily Regulated Coastal Areas
S.B. 423 would prevent the state's powerful Coastal Commission from shooting down affordable housing projects that comply with local zoning laws.
Valuable Mercatus Center Study Surveys Progress and Setbacks in the Struggle Against Exclusionary Zoning
Eli Kahn and Salim Furth provide overview of developments in the states, and lessons that can be learned.
ACLU-Backed Complaint Says Not Renting to People With Past Evictions Is Illegal Race, Sex Discrimination
HOPE Fair Housing Center argues in a new federal complaint that an Illinois landlord's blanket refusal to rent to people with eviction records amounts to illegal sex and race discrimination.
Declaring a 'Right' to Housing Won't Solve Homelessness
Instead, try making it easier to build more housing!
Zoning Police Criminalize Kindness in Oregon
A town clamps down on distributing clothes, personal care items, and food to the homeless.
Study: San Francisco Rent Control Expansion Led to More Evictions
A new study from researchers at Northwestern University found that landlords were incentivized by rising rents to replace existing tenants with new market-rate-paying tenants.
San Francisco Gets $20 Million Zoning Reform Grant the Same Week It Halts New Housing For Casting Shadows
This is the second RAISE grant San Francisco has received since the Biden administration retooled the program to reward jurisdictions for adopting zoning reforms.
Bridget Phetasy: Why I Left California for Texas
The wildly popular podcaster is still "politically homeless" but says leaving California and having a kid have improved her life immensely.
Rent Control 2.0 Looks a Lot Like Rent Control 1.0
Rent control is getting a rhetorical makeover from progressive policy makers.
New York City Orders Inflation-Adjusted Rent Cuts at Rent-Stabilized Buildings
The country's largest legacy rent-control policy is pushing building owners to the breaking point.
Study: Banning Investors From Buying Homes Leads to Higher Rents, More Gentrification
Home prices were unaffected by a ban on buy-to-rent housing in the Netherlands, but more affordable rental housing disappeared.
The Fed Won't Save Us From the Inflation Iceberg
Plus: Was Gerald Ford right to pardon Richard Nixon?
City Council Indictment Shows How L.A.'s Overregulated Housing Market Breeds Corruption
City Councilmember Curren Price is indicted for steering favors to affordable housing developers who were bribing his wife.
Portland, Maine, Will Vote on Whether To Roll Back the City's Socialist Housing Policy Revolution
Today, voters will consider a citizen petition that would let landlords raise rents to market rates on vacant units.
A Brief History of Single-Family Zoning
California recently enacted legislation that invalidates single-family zoning, as an effort to increase housing supply. Other alternatives would be wiser.
In State Legislatures, Targeted Bills and Bipartisan Support Were Key To Passing Housing Reforms
Meanwhile, big, partisan "everything bagel" zoning reform bills that tried to squeeze through the entire YIMBY agenda floundered.
NIMBY Cities Are Using Your Tax Dollars To Lobby Against New Housing
Publicly funded leagues of cities are fighting zoning reforms in state capitals across the country.
Bryan Caplan on NIMBYism and Economic Ignorance
Leading expert on political ignorance and housing comments on evidence indicating that ignorance, not self-interest, is at the root of most opposition to zoning reform.
Don't Buy the Social Housing Hype
Cities become affordable when they build a lot of housing, not when they subsidize it.
