Is Mobility More Important than Density?
Economist Tyler Cowen argues the answer is "yes." But much depends on what kind of mobility we're talking about.
Housing Policy
What Walz and Vance Get Wrong About Opportunity and Mobility
Walz is wrong to attack Vance for leaving home to go to Yale. Vance is wrong to support policies that would close off similar opportunities to others.
Kamala Harris' Affordability Agenda Is a Good Idea Backed by Terrible Policies
Americans need a politician dedicated to unwinding decades of government interventions that have driven up the cost of middle-class living.
Code Games
Plus: An appeals court sides with property owners seeking compensation for the CDC's eviction ban, a Michigan court backs the would-be builders of a "green cemetery," and Kamala Harris' spotty supply-side credentials.
Harris and Trump Offer Terrible Housing Policies
With minor exceptions, their proposals are likely to do more harm than good.
Harris' Economic Illiteracy
Plus: Taylor Lorenz scandal, Chinese economy in trouble, tax-free tips, and more...
San Francisco City Council Targets Free Speech To Cover Up Its Own Housing Failures
Desperate to control soaring rents, the city council bans rental data tools while ignoring its own role in the housing crisis.
Tim Walz's Other Stolen Valor Scandal
The Minnesota governor is being hailed as a YIMBY zoning reformer despite doing nothing of consequence on the issue.
The Housing Theory of Childless Cat Ladies
Would a YIMBY building boom rejuvenate urban family life or produce sterile, megacity hellscapes?
Pacific Legal Foundation Report on "Locking Squatters Out: How States Can Protect Property Owners From Squatters"
The report has useful data on the scope of the problem, and recommendations on what can be done about it.
YIMBYism is the Ultimate Localism
If you want "local control" of land use, the best way to do it is let property owners decide how to use their property for themselves.
No Muslims In My Backyard?
Plus: Kamala Harris doubles down on rent control, Gavin Newsom issues a new executive order on housing, and the natural tendency to keep adding more regulation.
RFK Jr. Pays Lip Service to the Debt While Pushing Policies That Would Increase It
It's good to hear a candidate actually talk about our spending problem. But his campaign promises would exacerbate it.
California Forever, Forever
The company needs a lot of government permission slips to build its planned new city in the Bay Area. It's now changing the order in which it asks for them.
Proposed New York City Hotel Regulation Threatens To Push Prices Even Higher
With prices skyrocketing, the city is weighing whether to regulate hotels further by barring them from hiring contracted workers.
Coconut Trees, Price Controls, and Demand Subsidies
Plus: Gainesville shrinks minimum lot sizes, a Colorado church can keep providing shelter to the homeless, and Berkeley considers allowing small apartments everywhere.
Mercatus Center Study Documents Progress on Housing Reform
Many states have enacted laws curbing exclusionary zoning and other regulations that block new housing construction.
Zoning Police and NIMBYs Want To Keep People Homeless
Vineyard owners face $120,000 in fines for letting an employee and his family live on their 60-acre property without a permit.
Here's How To Pay for Trump's Tax Cuts
There seems to be general bipartisan agreement on keeping a majority of the cuts, which are set to expire. They can be financed by cleaning out the tax code of unfair breaks.
Trump Changes His Mind on Zoning. Again.
Whoever is president has very weak incentives to get zoning reform right.
Biden's Badly Flawed New Housing Plan
It combines nationwide rent control with modest supply-side measures potentially freeing up "underutilized" federal property for housing construction.
Joe Biden Loves Rent Control, J.D. Vance Hates BlackRock
Republicans and Democrats have both managed to get worse on housing policy in the past week.
The 2024 GOP Platform Promises To 'Make America Affordable Again.' So Why Are They Embracing Fiscal Insanity?
Although former President Donald Trump's deregulatory agenda would make some positive changes, it's simply not enough.
Biden vs. Trump: Housing Policy Edition
How do the two major party candidates stack up on housing policy?
Biden, Trump, and RFK Jr. Are All Anti-Freedom
Those three presidential candidates are making promises that would have bewildered and horrified the Founding Fathers.
Gorsuch Apes NIMBY Government Lies in Supreme Court's Grants Pass Decision
Plus: A disappointing first round of "Baby YIMBY" grant awards, President Joe Biden endorses rent control, and House Republicans propose cutting housing spending.
A Religious Freedom Case for "YIGBY"
Notre Dame law Prof. Patrick Reidy argues that religious organizations are entitled to faith-based exemptions from zoning restrictions preventing them from building affordable housing on their land.
Supreme Court Rules That Punishing the Homeless for Sleeping Outside Isn't 'Cruel and Unusual'
Homeless advocates say the court's decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson gives local governments a blank check to "to arrest or fine those with no choice but to sleep outdoors."
RealPage Conspiracy Theories
The media, state attorneys general, and the Biden administration are blaming rent-recommendation software for rising rents. Normal stories of supply and demand are the more reasonable explanation.
New York Cuts Real Rents at Rent-Stabilized Apartments
The city's Rent Guidelines Board approved a nominal 2.75 rent increase for one million rent-stabilized apartments. That's below the year's 3.3 percent inflation rate.
"Yes in God's Backyard"—A Useful, But Limited Form of Housing Deregulation
There is a growing movement to let churches and other religious organizations build housing on their property that would otherwise be banned by zoning regulations.
NIMBY Towns, Fake Parks, and Eminent Domain
Plus: unpermitted ADUs in San Jose, Sen. J.D. Vance's mass deportation plan for housing affordability, and the California Coastal Commission's anti-housing record.
Does Miami Have the Answer to Homelessness?
There may not be a perfect solution to ending homelessness, but there are some clear principles to reduce the friction for those working to do so.
New Atlantic Article on "The Constitutional Case Against Exclusionary Zoning"
It is coauthored with Josh Braver.
Will This Bill Save or Scuttle California's Builder's Remedy?
Plus: Sen. John Fetterman introduces a new zoning reform bill, U.C. Berkeley finally beats the NIMBYs in court, and Austin's unwise "equity overlay."
Conflicting Evidence on Public Support for YIMBY Zoning Reform
Recent studies diverge on the extent to which public opinion backs policies that would deregulate housing construction. YIMBYs would do well to learn from both.
Essay on "How Constitutional Litigation Can Help End Exclusionary Zoning"
A guest post on economist Bryan Caplan's Bet On It substack.
The Housing Policy Implications of Taylor Swift
Plus: An interview with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis about the state's blockbuster year for housing reform.
Bryan Caplan: How Regulation Makes Housing More Expensive
Moving is no longer a viable way to grow your wealth in the U.S., says the author of Build, Baby, Build.
The Rise of the Bedroom Counters
Plus: The results of rent control are in, California's tiny home program gets minimal results, and yet another city eyes a crackdown on short-term rentals.
Tacos, Sandwiches, and Zoning
Plus: Austin shrinks its minimum lot sizes, Florida builds on past zoning reforms, and Arizona passes ADU and missing middle bills.
Compendium of Bryan Caplan's Guest-blogging Posts on His New Book "Build, Baby, Build: The Science and Ethics of Housing Regulation"
A listing of his four posts on different aspects of the book and the issues it raises.
*Build, Baby, Build*: Responses to the Best Objections
Specificity, fertility, and political assimilation. Fourth in a series of guest-blogging posts.
No, Politicians Can't 'Fix' Prices—and That's OK
Price controls lead to the misallocation of resources, shortages, diminished product quality, and black markets.
The YIMBY Napkin
Checking the credibility of Hsieh-Moretti the lazy way. Third in a series of guest-blogging posts.
Zoning Regulations Empower Control Freaks—and Bigots
The Institute for Justice has launched a project to reform land use regulation.
