18 Months After Wildfires Destroyed Some 2,000 Homes on Maui, Only 3 Have Been Rebuilt
A thicket of red tape has made the island's rebuilding efforts painfully slow.
Zoning
In Session
Lawmakers across the country introduce bills to strengthen private property rights, crackdown on out-of-control regulators, and get the government out of micromanaging stairways.
Regulations Keep Millions of Bedrooms Empty During a Housing Crisis
Zoning laws, occupancy limits, and short-term rental restrictions are keeping housing off the market and driving up costs.
California Squeezes Private Money Out of Wildfire Rebuilding Efforts
Needless regulation on fire insurance, "speculators," and duplexes means fewer dollars are going to rebuild Los Angeles.
The L.A. Fires Are a Natural Disaster, Not a Policy Disaster
The Golden State has many bad policies in desperate need of reform. It's not obvious they had more than a marginal effect on the still-burning fires in Los Angeles.
Easing Zoning Restrictions Can Facilitate Rebuilding After the LA Fires
The destruction of numerous homes exacerbated the city's already severe housing crisis. Curbing exclusionary zoning is crucial to addressing the problem.
Los Angeles Zoning Laws Pushed People and Homes Toward Fire-Prone Areas
Single-family zoning makes it practically impossible to build more housing in central L.A.
Why Building a Lot of 'Affordable' Housing Is Bad News for Affordability
Cities become affordable when lots of new housing is built, not when a larger percentage of a small amount of new housing is made "affordable" by regulation.
Unprecedented Rise in Homelessness
The latest federal homelessness survey finds an 18 percent annual rise in the number of people living without permanent shelter.
Housing Policy 2024: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Cities and states are passing lots of productive reforms, local courts are increasingly striking them down, and local governments continue their harassment of homeless shelters.
North Carolina Passes Sweeping Surprise Ban on 'Downzoning'
To the bewilderment of many, North Carolina's hurricane relief bill includes the nation's strongest property rights protections against new zoning restrictions.
Is the YIMBY Movement Hopelessly Divided?
Internal tensions within the movement are real, but far from irreconcilable. Litigation and political reform are mutually reinforcing, not mutually exclusive pathways to curbing exclusionary zoning.
How Exclusionary Zoning Increases Homelessness
A new paper by housing expert Salim Furth shows it does so by making it harder for marginal people to find housing with relatives and friends.
Pastor Criminally Charged With Zoning Violations Gets His Day in Court
Plus: New York City moves forward on zoning reforms, Utah city moves backward on granny flats, and D.C. considers a ban on landlords' pit bull bans.
Tribal Sovereignty Saves a Homeless Shelter (For Now)
The Yakama Nation has won a temporary restraining order preventing the City of Toppenish, Washington, from closing its new cold weather shelter.
Big City, Little Reforms
The final version of New York's "City of Yes" reforms makes modest liberalizing changes to the city's zoning code.
Families Need Affordable Housing, but New York Residents Use Red Tape To Block Development
With the help of New York’s environmental review law, local NIMBYs halted an approved housing project, adding to delays and costs in a city facing a housing shortage.
California Voters Opt for Orderly Urbanism on Election Day
Golden State voters decisively rejected progressive approaches to crime and housing.
California's Rent Control Initiative Goes Down in Flames
A related initiative preventing the state's most prolific rent control–supporting nonprofit from funding future initiatives is headed for a narrow victory.
Final Published Version of "The Constitutional Case Against Exclusionary Zoning" Now Available
In this Texas Law Review article, Josh Braver and I argue that most exclusionary zoning violates the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment.
The Year's Most Important Housing Vote
Proposition 33 would repeal all of California's state-level limits on rent control. It's passage could prove to be a disaster for housing supply in the Golden State.
Elon Musk Versus the California Coastal Commission
The state's powerful coastal land-use regulator is arguing its awesome development-stopping powers applies to rocket launches as well as housing.
In Rush to Redevelop, a California City Tramples Property Rights
Urban renewal efforts should recognize that existing businesses and new residents can coexist.
No Place To Go
Despite homelessness being on the rise, local governments keep cracking down on efforts to shelter those without permanent housing.
J.D. Vance Accuses Ohio's Haitians of 'Massively Violating' Zoning Laws
Instead of focusing on the ways a rollback of zoning laws could lower housing costs for everyone, Vance wants to zealously enforce zoning codes to keep Haitians out of town.
Is Kamala Harris Really a YIMBY?
Harris rightly calls out regulations for causing the housing shortage, but she also supports rent control policies that will make it worse.
America's Trial Courts Have a NIMBY Problem
Plus: the transformation of California's builder's remedy, the zoning reform implications of the Eric Adams indictment, and why the military killed starter home reform in Arizona.
Virginia Court Rules Against Arlington "Missing Middle" Zoning Reform
The ruling highlights need for state-level zoning reform and stronger judicial protection of constitutional property rights.
Revised Versions of Articles on "The Constitutional Case Against Exclusionary Zoning" and "Land Use Regulation" Now Available
Revised versions of both publications are now up on SSRN.
Megalopolis Is a Mega Mess
Francis Ford Coppola's clumsy passion project is an ambitious misfire.
Could Eric Adams' Corruption Charges Sink His Signature Zoning Reform?
The New York City Council takes up the mayor's City of Yes for Housing Opportunity reform package the same day Adams is indicted on federal corruption charges.
My Chapter on "Land Use Regulation" For the Forthcoming Routledge Handbook on Classical Liberalism
It provides an overview of several major issues in land-use policy.
Deregulation Can Fix the Housing Crunch
Increasing the supply of housing requires looser rules and fewer bureaucratic delays.
Tim Scott Wants to Deregulate Manufactured Housing
Plus: An alleged slumlord gets a "tenant empowerment" grant, Seattle's affordable housing mandates lead to less housing, D.C.'s affordable housing crisis.
Interview on the Eminent Domain Podcast
Bobby Debelak, new host of this podcast, interviewed me about a variety of topics related to eminent domain and property rights.
New Study on How to Address Public Ignorance About Housing Policy
New data shows that "housing supply skeptics" can be persuaded by evidence showing that allowing more construction reduces prices. But not clear this is a good road map for addressing the problem of public ignorance in the real world.
The First Amendment Right To 'Greenmail' Developers
Plus: The Montana Supreme Court rescues zoning reform, and a new challenge to inclusionary zoning.
Photo: When the City Says Your Boat Needs a Fence
The city of Seaside, California, ordered a man to cover the boat parked in his driveway. He offered a lesson in malicious compliance.
What the Federal Government Can do to Alleviate the Housing Crisis
Harvard economist Edward Glaeser, a leading expert on housing policy, offers some ideas on how Congress can use conditional spending to break down barriers to housing construction.
Are You Living in San Diego's 'Worst ADU'?
Plus: The feds come for RealPage, a YIMBY caucus comes to Congress, and tiny Rhode Island enacts a big slate of housing reforms.
Help Workers By Breaking Down Barriers to Labor 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, both within countries and through international migration.
YIMBYs' Premature Victory Dance at the DNC
Kamala Harris' promise to end the housing shortage and adopt rent control shows that YIMBY ideas are just one of several competing housing policy agendas within the Democratic Party.
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.
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.
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.
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.
