Housing Policy
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 Flawed Attempt at a Libertarian Defense of Exclusionary Zoning
Robert Poole's effort to defend exclusionary zoning falls prey to a combination of logical fallacies and factual error.
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.
My New Brennan Center Article on Tyler v. Hennepin County and the Cross-Ideological Case for Stronger Judicial Protection for Constitutional Property Rights
The Tyler home equity theft case is just the tip of a much larger iceberg of property rights issues where stronger judicial protection can protect the interests of the poor and minorities, as well as promote the federalist values of localism and diversity.
Don't Buy the Social Housing Hype
Cities become affordable when they build a lot of housing, not when they subsidize it.
Home Business Lawsuit Argues People Have a Natural Right To Keep Bees on Their Property
Ellen Finnerty wanted to make and sell honey. The town of Ottawa, Kansas, says that's illegal.
Homelessness Isn't an Unfixable Problem
Start by looking at the government policies that have made it worse.
Conservatives Pushing 'Common Good Capitalism' Sound a Lot Like Progressives
The ideology champions the same tired policies that big government types predictably propose whenever they see something they don't like.
Economists Are Right To Hate Rent Control
Progressives like to argue that rent control policies that exempt new construction don't impact the construction of new housing.
Texas Bill Would Legalize Townhouses
The Texas Senate has passed two bills legalizing building homes on smaller lots and accessory dwelling units across the state.
Inflation Ticks Higher in April as Rents Keep Rising
Is this the new normal, and will Joe Biden pay a political price for it?
Federal Zoning Bill Would Preempt Local Parking Mandates
The legislation would give property owners "sole discretion" in deciding how many parking spaces they want to build.
A YIMBY Victory in Montana
Montana's sweeping new zoning reform is both good in itself and a potential model for cross-ideological cooperation on this issue elsewhere.
More Evidence that Cutting Zoning Restrictions Reduces the Price of Housing
A new Pew Charitable Trusts study examining jurisdictions with that reformed zoning finds far lower rent increases there than elsewhere.
Borrowers With High Credit Scores Penalized Under New Federal Mortgage Fee Plan
Plus: Buzzfeed News is shutting down, alcohol delivery not linked to higher rates of booze consumption, and more...
Trump Advocates Mass Incarceration, 'Tent Cities' To Address Homelessness
The plan is unlikely to work, and the government already has a sordid recent history of funneling people into tent cities anyway.
California's Builders and YIMBYs at Loggerheads Over Bill Cracking Down on 'Unchecked Sprawl'
Activists who would like to see more housing built and people who build housing for a living would seem to be natural allies. A new bill in the California Legislature is driving them apart.
Why Homelessness Is Worse in California Than in Texas
Today, the Lone Star state counts 90 homeless people per every 100,000 residents. In California, the problem is almost five times as bad.
Amid Inflation Relief, Rental Prices Continue Soaring
Annual inflation fell to 5 percent in March, the lowest mark in two years.
Debate: Mentally Ill Homeless People Must Be Locked Up for Public Safety
Have we forgotten the era of mass institutionalization?
Texas Considers Bill To Privatize the Business of Issuing Building Permits
If a municipality fails to approve or deny a permit by state-set deadlines, developers could hire private third parties to get the job done.
Denver Voters Reject Plan To Let Developer Convert Its Private Golf Course Into Thousands of Homes
Developer Westside wanted to turn its 155-acre property into 3,200 homes and a public park.
The First 'Missing Middle' Reform of the Year Has Passed. Will It Get Housing Built?
Arlington's successful passage of a modest missing middle housing reform bill after an intense debate raises the question of whether YIMBY politics can practically fix the problems it sets out to address.
DeSantis Signs Bill Banning Rent Control, Preempting Local Zoning Restrictions
The new law would allow developers to build housing on commercially zoned lots provided they include affordable units.
New York Lawmakers Could Pass the Nation's Strictest State-Level Rent Control Law by the End of the Week
A controversial "good cause" eviction bill that would cap rent increases could be included in a budget bill that must pass by April 1.
Blame Regulations, Not Foreign Buyers, for High Housing Costs
Restricting foreign real estate ownership has something for both sides—conservatives don't like foreigners, and progressives don't like capital.
A Town Without Zoning Fights To Stay Free
In Caroline, New York, officials are trying to impose the city's first zoning code. These residents won't have it.
Arlington, Virginia Enacts "Missing Middle" Zoning Reform
The new policy isn't ideal. But it's an important deregulatory step in the right direction, making it easier to build new housing in response to growing demand.
The Zoning Theory of Everything
Land use policies explain the battles over everything from the Great Recession to abortion to Donald Trump.
The One-Way Rent Control Ratchet
The allegedly smart balance "anti-rent gouging" policies have struck between supply and stability is already unraveling.
Despite Multiple States Abolishing Single-Family-Only Zoning, Very Few Duplexes and Triplexes Are Being Built
A new report illustrates that the middle of the housing market is still missing.
Inflation Isn't Going Away
Prices rose by 0.4 percent in February and core inflation was up 0.5 percent, the third consecutive month that it has increased.
Bailouts Should Not Be the Norm
During the pandemic, the U.S. mortgage market avoided collapse without any bailouts. Here's how.
Is This the Year California's Development-Killing Environmental Review Law Sees Serious Reform?
Yet another court decision stopping a U.C. Berkeley housing project is getting California's policy makers to think bigger about reforming the infamous California Environmental Quality Act.
Will Oregon's Housing Reforms Spark a Building Boom or Be a Bureaucratic Bust?
Lawmakers are considering giving state officials the ability to rewrite NIMBY cities' restrictive zoning codes.
TikTok and How Congress Treats Americans Like 'Unruly Children'
Plus: The editors puzzle over Donald Trump’s latest list describing his vision for America.
