The Pandemic Home-Building Boom Is Over
Builders are starting fewer new housing projects but housing construction rates remain steady. Experts say it's a product of inflation catching up with persistent supply chain problems.
Housing Policy
Marc Andreessen's High-Tech Fix for the Housing Crisis Lets Him Keep Being a NIMBY
The venture capitalist's $350 million investment in WeWork founder Adam Neumann's new venture Flow is supposed to help renters build community and equity. They'd be better off if we just built housing instead.
Are San Francisco's NIMBYs Finally Getting Their Comeuppance?
State housing officials have launched a first-ever investigation of the city's housing policies and practices, setting the stage for far more sweeping interventions.
Walgreens 'Helped Fuel' Opioid Crisis in San Francisco, Says Judge
Plus: Americans want to vote on abortion, why the housing crisis has gone national, and more...
Mobile Homes Are a Crucial Source of Affordable Housing. Politicians Are Trying To Zone Them Out of Town.
The government should not take away reliable and affordable housing from those who need it most.
Protesters Declare 'Housing Is a Human Right' While Marching Against New Housing Construction
New housing construction for 1,100 UC Berkeley students and 125 homeless people was paused Wednesday in response to protests.
Maxine Waters Says She May Not Vote for 'Shameful' Inflation Reduction Act, Citing Lack of Housing Spending
The new reconciliation bill also nixes a zoning reform program that had been included in the more expansive Build Back Better bill.
NYC Has 98 Closed Playgrounds, Despite Mayor Eric Adams' Pledge
The mayor promised to reopen city playgrounds, but more of them are currently closed than before he took office.
San Francisco Mayor Slaps Down Clever Plot To Make Housing Crisis Worse
The mayor vetoed a controversial ordinance that would have legalized more types of housing on paper while making it harder to build in practice.
How Demands for 'Local Control' Become an Excuse for NIMBYism
Conservatives' guiding principle should always be less government control, not more.
Great Moments in Unintended Consequences: Rent Control, Arizona Alt Fuel, Ballot Access (Vol. 8)
Good intentions, bad results.
Is South Florida's Housing Market Too Hot?
Zoning laws, a limited housing stock, and inflation have created a major housing shortage in the bubble-prone region.
Federal Court of Claims Rejects Takings Claims Against CDC Eviction Moratorium
But it does so on the ground that the moratorium was never properly "authorized," not because a moratorium could never be a taking.
SCOTUS Said Ambitious Climate Regulations Need To Come From Congress. Lawmakers Are Furious.
Plus: A new lawsuit challenges D.C.'s ban on carrying guns on public transit, Denver's latest housing affordability initiative will make the city more expensive, and more...
San Francisco Legalizes 'Missing Middle' Housing in the Worst Way Possible
Property owners can now build fourplexes in San Francisco, but only if they've owned the land for five years, place the new units under rent control, and don't try to make them much larger than a single-family home.
Is the Nation's Harshest Rent Control Law Unconstitutional, or Just Counterproductive?
Two St. Paul, Minnesota, landlords claim that the city's restrictions on rent increases above 3 percent amounts to a taking of their property without due process or compensation.
California's Competitors
Miami and Austin lured people away from California. But the new tech hubs could end up repeating San Francisco’s mistakes.
What John Oliver Gets Wrong About Rising Rents
The comedian largely ignores laws against new supply while arguing we should declare housing a federally funded, government-provided human right.
Beyond NIMBY vs. YIMBY—How Current Homeowners Can Benefit from Zoning Deregulation
Even if the value of their property goes down, current homeowners still often have much to gain from breaking down barriers to new housing construction.
The Dangers of Rent Control on Display in the Twin Cities
St. Paul has seen a 61 percent decrease in building permits after the city imposed rent control on future housing.
Does Affordable Housing Make the Surrounding Neighborhood Less Affordable?
A Urban Institute research brief found that affordable housing developments in Alexandria, Virginia, were associated with a small increase in surrounding property values.
Portland Legalized 'Missing Middle' Housing. Now It's Trying to Make It Easy to Build.
This month, the city passed a number of liberalizing reforms that legalize more types of housing and make already-legal homes more practical to build.
Eric Adams Wants to Cut a Rug, Zoning Regulations
The mayor's 'City of Yes' initiative would peel back regulations on everything from dancing in bars to all-studio apartment buildings.
Saudi Prince's Plan for 'Walkable' City of Single-File Buildings Could Be Two Miles-Long Skyscrapers Instead
The idea is exactly as dumb as it sounds.
County Where It Took 50 Years To Approve New Subdivision Bans New Airbnbs
Officials in Marin County, California, argue a temporary moratorium on new short-term rentals in western portions of the county is necessary to preserve the area's limited housing stock.
Biden's Plan To Link Federal Transportation Spending to Zoning Reform Could Make the Housing Shortage Worse
The administration is encouraging counterproductive "inclusionary zoning" policies that often raise housing prices and reduce supply.
Is America's Primary Affordable Housing Policy Unconstitutional?
Pittsburgh-area developers argue in a new lawsuit that the city's requirement that they include affordable units in their projects is an unconstitutional taking.
Eliminating Single-Family Zoning Isn't the Reason Minneapolis Is a YIMBY Success Story
Housing production is rising and rents are falling. But newly legal duplexes and triplexes make up only a tiny fraction of new development.
Joe Biden Takes Another Stab at Zoning Reform
The administration is proposing to spend $10 billion over ten years incentivizing local and state governments to remove regulatory barriers to new housing construction.
Maine Could Be the Third State To End Single-Family-Only Zoning
The Pine Tree State is embracing California-style housing reforms. It could run into California-style problems.
Pittsburgh Will Force Private Developers To Build Affordable Housing
These "inclusionary zoning" policies have a record of increasing housing costs and suppressing new housing supply.
Study: St. Paul's Rent Control Law Primarily Provides Benefits for High-Income Renters
A new paper finds that lower income property owners are seeing the biggest falls in property values while high-income renters will get the biggest discounts on rent.
Justin Trudeau's Plan To Ban Foreigners From Buying Canadian Homes Won't Make Housing Affordable
Foreign buyers are a small percentage of new home purchases. Excluding them from the housing market does little to reduce housing costs.
The Pandemic Is Over. California's Pandemic-Era Eviction Protections Are Getting Extended.
A.B. 2179 would stop some local-level eviction moratoriums from going into effect, while leaving untouched ones that have been in place since the beginning of the pandemic.
A Future for Floating Homes
Dutch officials are updating zoning laws to allow homes that are fixed to the shore but rise and fall with the water.
A Fuel Leak From a Navy Facility Could Shut Down All New Development on Hawaii's Most Populous Island
Contamination from the Navy's Red Hill underground fuel facility on Oahu has reduced Honolulu's water supply by 20 percent. Water officials are considering a moratorium on new construction to conserve water.
San Francisco Passes Moratorium on Delivery Warehouses To Shake Down Amazon
City politicians and union activists have said the temporary ban on new delivery warehouses is meant to send a message that the company can't just open a new facility without first providing generous "community benefits."
America's Most Controversial Rent Control Law Is Getting a Hasty Makeover
A collapse in new development activity followed St. Paul voters' approval of a strict, vaguely written rent control ordinance. City and state officials are scrambling over how best to fix the new law.
The Time the Federal Government Built a Flawed Housing Project and Tore It Down 20 Years Later
The government has learned nothing about affordable housing in the 50 years since Pruitt-Igoe came toppling down.
California NIMBYs Are Ruining U.C. Berkeley. Stop Them Before They Kill Again.
A California Supreme Court decision freezing enrollment at the state's flagship university is focusing the public's fury on the normally obscure, but incredibly consequential, California Environmental Quality Act.
How the War on Sprawl Caused High Housing Prices
Since the 1960s, planners have convinced many state and regional governments to limit the physical spread of urban areas.
San Francisco's Efforts to Block Duplexes Could Force It To Allow Skyscrapers Instead
Supervisors have proposed legalizing fourplexes in a way that preserves NIMBYs’ ability to stop new housing. That could trigger the state’s obscure “builder’s remedy.”
