Good Times, Bad Times: Eviction Edition
Plus: Voters in Massachusetts reject state-mandated upzonings, Florida localities rebel against a surprisingly effective YIMBY reform, and lawsuits target missing middle housing in Virginia.
Housing Policy
New Article on "The Constitutional Case Against Exclusionary Zoning"
Coauthor Josh Braver and I argue exclusionary zoning violates the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment.
New York, New York
Plus: rent control behind financial problems at NYCB, public housing's corruption problem, and New York City's near-zero vacancy rate.
Delinquent Countries
Plus: RFK Jr.'s Super Bowl ad, New York's war on Airbnbs, Biden's TikToks, and more...
Do Americans Really Only Want Sprawl?
Plus: the House votes for more affordable housing subsidies, Portland tries to fix its "inclusionary housing" program, and is 2024 the year of the granny flat?
ACLU Sues Ronald McDonald House for Refusing To House People Convicted of Assault
The ACLU's lawsuit is filed on behalf of a New York man whose application to stay in a Ronald McDonald House was denied because of his 12-year-old felony assault conviction.
Argentina, Once One of the Richest Countries, Is Now One of the Poorest. Javier Milei Could Help Fix That.
The new libertarian president believes in free markets and the rule of law. When people have those things, prosperity happens.
The 2 Reasons California's YIMBY Reforms Are Failing
Plus: Ohio church sues the city trying to shut down its homeless services, another indigenous-owned megaproject approved in Vancouver, B.C., and a new report shows rapidly deteriorating housing affordability.
Princeton's Matthew Desmond Gets Everything Wrong About Poverty's Root Causes
Desmond's analysis never goes deeper than his facile assertion that "poverty persists because some wish and will it to."
Zoning Bans the Good Samaritan
Plus: Beverly Hills homeowners can't build new pools until their city allows new housing, a ballot initiative would legalize California's newest city, and NIMBYs sue to overturn zoning reform (again).
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.
Homeless Encampments Cost These Cities Tens of Thousands of Dollars Per Tent
L.A., Portland, and other cities are spending millions to house homeless people in outdoor "safe sleeping" sites.
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.
Court's Wild Zoning Decision Blocks 'Montana Miracle'
Plus: More local "missing middle" reforms pass in Maine and Virginia, Colorado court blesses crackdown on student housing, and Florida tries to escape its slow growth past.
Red State, Red Tape
How Florida’s legacy of slow-growth laws is holding back its post-COVID boom.
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.
California Officials Force Elderly Couple To Dismantle Home, Citing Blocked Ocean Views
Plus: Austin's newly passed zoning reforms could be in legal jeopardy, HUD releases its latest census of the homeless population, and a little-discussed Florida reform is spurring a wave of home construction.
New York's Broken Housing Court Lets Tenant Stay For Years Without Paying Rent
Plus: Austin and Salt Lake City pass very different "middle housing" reforms, Democrats in Congress want to ban hedge fund–owned rental housing, and a look at GOP presidential candidate's housing policy positions.
San Francisco's Can-Kicking on Zoning Reform Could See It Lose All Zoning Powers
Plus: the U.S. Justice Department says zoning restrictions on a church's soup kitchen are likely illegal, more cities pass middle housing reforms, and California gears up for another rent control fight.
Seattle Banned Landlords From Rejecting Tenants Based on Criminal Records. Will the Supreme Court Step in?
The political push behind the law was well-meaning. But it will backfire on many prospective renters.
Proposed L.A. Ordinance Would Require Airbnb Hosts To Get Police Permission To Operate
The regulation is part of a suite of new restrictions on hotels sought by the local hotel workers union.
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.
San Francisco's APEC Cleanup Hasn't 'Fixed' Its Homelessness Problem
No amount of encampment sweeps and pressure-washing sidewalks is going to solve the problem of thousands of people living on the streets.
L.A. Wants To Commandeer Vacant Hotel Rooms as Homeless Housing
Los Angeles voters will decide in March whether to force hotels to report empty rooms to the city and accept vouchers from homeless people.
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.
'The Town Without Zoning' Elects a Pro-Zoning Town Government
Pro-zoning candidates in Caroline, New York, won the elections for town supervisor and three seats on the town board.
Is a Land Value Tax the Solution to Detroit's Messed Up Property Tax System?
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan argues that shifting taxes from homes to the land they sit on will encourage development and cut taxes for most homeowners. Local property tax activists aren't convinced.
The Best Hope to Rein in Rent Control Is Lurking on the Supreme Court's Docket
The U.S. Supreme Court keeps putting off deciding whether to take up a challenge to New York's rent control scheme.
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.
Texas School District Backs Off Effort To Seize a 79-Year-Old Man's Home for Stadium Parking
The Aldine Independent School District had wanted the property as part of a $50 million redevelopment of its high school football stadium.
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.
California's Housing Crisis Looms Over the State's GOP Convention
Away from the speeches of the party's presidential candidates, the Republican Huntington Beach city attorney talked up his efforts to thwart state zoning reforms.
Banning Criminal Background Checks Will Lead To More Housing Discrimination, Not Less
The best reforms would correct the real problems of overcriminalization and overincarceration, as well as removing all artificial barriers to building more homes.
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.
The Feds Sue New York Landlords for Not Allowing a Tenant's Emotional Support Cat
The Department of Housing and Urban Development argues in its complaint that a failure to allow emotional support animals amounts to illegal disability discrimination under the Fair Housing Act.
Map: In L.A., Local Control Is Local Confusion
The people who could benefit from new housing stock aren't on this map—they're exiled to unincorporated areas.
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.
