The Pandemic Was a Disaster for Housing Affordability. 2023 Might Be a Little Better.
Rents and home prices skyrocketed almost everywhere over the past two years. There's some hope new supply will bring costs down in the new year.
Housing Policy
Los Angeles County Extends Its Eviction Moratorium Again, Citing Rising COVID, Flu, RSV Cases
Landlords say that nearly three years of eviction moratoriums is forcing some property owners out of the rental business entirely.
New HUD Report Shows Steady Pandemic-Era Increase in Unsheltered Homeless Population
The overall homeless population stayed basically flat from 2020 to 2022. But the number of people sleeping on the streets increased 3.4 percent.
City That Forced Landlords To Evict Tenants Suspected of Crimes Will Pay $1 Million To Settle DOJ Lawsuit
Plus: Elon Musk bans Twitter account that tracks his private jet, Iong permit waits to build new apartment buildings in San Francisco, and more...
California's Landmark Environmental Law Finally Comes for the Legislature Itself
Golden State lawmakers have refused to fix the California Environmental Quality Act. Now it could cost them a brand new office building.
Will Eric Adams' 'Get Stuff Built' Plan Actually Get Stuff Built?
The mayor is proposing a long list of helpful, but marginal, reforms that would speed up the city's approval processes for new housing.
Elon Musk Isn't the Only One Fighting Regulators for Turning Offices Into Bedrooms
The rise of remote work has piqued developers' interest in converting empty downtown offices to apartments. Zoning codes and building regulations often make that impossible.
California Bill Would Exempt Church-Sponsored Housing Projects From Hellish Zoning Laws
S.B. 4 would let religious institutions and nonprofit colleges skip the typical environmental review and red tape when building low-income housing on their property.
Ron DeSantis Admin Says in New Lawsuit That the Free Market Won't Produce Affordable Housing
Florida's Department of Economic Opportunity is suing the city of Gainesville to block its legalization of small "missing middle" apartment buildings in single-family neighborhoods.
D.C.'s 'Green New Deal for Housing' Is Doomed Before It Begins
Social housing supporters hope that the city can get city-owned, city-operated housing right with a new office, a more expansive mission, and different branding.
Cities Switch From Requiring Too Many Parking Spaces To Banning Too Many Parking Spaces
Nashville is the latest city to eliminate minimum parking requirements while simultaneously capping how much parking developers are now allowed to build.
Republicans Need an Actual Plan To Grow the Economy
The biggest beneficiaries of economic growth are poor people. But the deepest case for economic growth is a moral one.
Landlords Sue Over City-Mandated 15 Percent Rent Cut
Property owners in Kingston, New York, argue the city is vastly underestimating its vacancy rate in order to justify ruinous rent cuts.
Rent Control Is Up for a Vote This Year. Its Effects Aren't.
Voters in Orange County, Florida, and Pasadena, California, will vote on ballot initiatives that cap rent increases at, or below, inflation.
What Is a Family? Ask a Zoning Official.
Big cities like New York, Baltimore, and others use strict definitions of family to restrict housing.
My New The Hill Article on How Arlington, VA Battle over "Missing Middle" Housing is a Microcosm of Broader National Struggle Against Exclusionary Zoning
Barack Obama could have been referring to our community, when he said that “[t]he most liberal communities in the country aren’t that liberal when it comes to affordable housing.”
Colorado Town Seizing Ski Resort's Land To Stop It Building Employee Housing
The Vail Town Council says that while affordable housing is desperately needed in the community, Vail Resorts' Booth Heights project would threaten local bighorn sheep.
California's Housing Policy Fight Is Flipping Traditional Political Alliances
Democrats are in favor of reducing the power of government over property owners, while Republicans want bureaucrats to rule.
Divided Government Is Good. In 2023, Bipartisanship Would Be Better.
From immigration to drug reform, there is plenty of potential for productive compromise.
New Report Reveals Uninhabitable Units, Shocking Incompetence at D.C. Public Housing Authority
D.C officials are calling for sweeping reforms to D.C. Housing Authority's governance, or even a federal takeover, in the wake of a damning new report.
California A.G. Says Anaheim NIMBYs Can't Block Women's Group Home
State officials have been warning Anaheim for decades that their regulations on transitional housing were illegal. The city's rejection of nonprofit Grandma's House of Hope's group home was the last straw.
California's 'CARE Court' Won't Help the Homeless
It will just give the state more power to control those deemed mentally ill.
D.C. Zoning Officials Prepare a 'Racial Equity Tool' To Guide Zoning Decisions
Local YIMBY advocates express concern that the tool, as written, is overly vague and could be exploited to stop development.
California's Housing Crisis Hasn't Spared the State's College Students
A new law would make it harder for NIMBY neighbors to obstruct new dorms with bogus environmental complaints.
Netflix's Athena Is a Masterpiece About Police Violence and Social Unrest
A technically astounding film that turns a French housing block into a political warzone.
The Nation's Worst Rent Control Law Gets a Few Moderating Fixes
The St. Paul City Council passed a series of amendments to a voter-passed rent stabilization ordinance that exempt new construction and make it easier for landlords to factor inflation into rent increases.
Study: New York City Apartments Being 'Defunded' by High Inflation, Rent Caps
A new report from The Community Housing Improvement Program argues that allowable rent hikes in rent-stabilized buildings cover less than half the increase in operating costs.
Federal Money Intended for Zoning Reformers Ends Up in NIMBY Clutches
The White House is giving $1.5 billion in INFRA grants to entities that either don't approve new housing or are actively opposed to making it easier to build.
As California Embraces Development, San Francisco Mayor Vetoes Fake Housing Reform Bill
The proposed policy was offensive to property rights and disincentivized construction. The mayor's rejection of it shows the state's increasing interest in allowing more building.
Cardi B Delivers Perceptive, Profanity-Laced Analysis of High Home Prices, Rents
The rapper blamed a lack of "motherfucking inventory" for high home prices and rising rents in low-income neighborhoods. She's not the only one.
Latest Inflation Numbers Show That Rent Is Too Damn High
The cost of shelter was up 0.7 percent in August and 6.2 percent for the year, according to the latest Consumer Price Index report.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' Administration Tells Gainesville To Abandon Zoning Reform
The state's Republican administration comes out against property rights and local control.
This Renegade California Developer Wants To Build a 2,300-Unit Megaproject in a NIMBY Stronghold
A never-before-used state law might make his plans bulletproof.
What Would It Take for the Democrats To Really Be the Party of Opportunity?
Government should not penalize investment, thwart competition, discourage innovation and work, or obstruct production.
Help Labor by Breaking Down Barriers to Mobility
Labor Day is the right time to remember that we can make workers vastly better off by empowering more of them to vote with their feet.
New Loan Program for Black, Latino Neighborhoods Isn't 'Explicitly Racist'
But Bank of America's Community Affordable Loan Solution program will likely be a gentrification accelerating machine.
Christian Britschgi: Zoning Restrictions Worsen the Housing Crisis
Associate Editor Christian Britschgi breaks down how zoning restrictions distort the housing market.
California Takes on the High Cost of Mandated Parking
California's cities require developers to include a minimum number of parking spaces in their projects, regardless of whether those spaces are in demand. A state bill would change that.
Selling a Home? The D.C. Down Payment Assistance Program Will Give You Up to $202,000.
The city's expanded down payment assistance program is a recipe for increasing home prices.
Environmental Lawsuits Tried To Block 50,000 Homes From Being Built in California in 1 Year
The California Environmental Quality Act gives everyone the right to delay the approval of new housing. The Golden State's NIMBY activists are happy to exercise that right.
Lawsuit: Orlando Rent Control Proposal Is Illegal
Florida landlords and realtors argue that Orange County is abusing its emergency powers.
Tiny Homes for Las Vegas Homeless Demolished Over Code Violations
Plus: Trump sues over Mar-a-Lago raid, why people vote to "dismantle democracy," how Ireland ruined its rental market, and more...
Joe Biden's Use of Transportation Dollars To Incentivize Zoning Reform Is a Big Flop
Little, if any, of the $2.2 billion in RAISE grants have gone to jurisdictions proactively deregulating housing construction.
Glenn Youngkin Says NIMBY Regulations Are Making Virginia an Impossibly Expensive Place To Live
The governor blamed local restrictions on new development for the state's rapidly rising rents and home prices.
