Non-Paywalled Version of My Washington Examiner Article on "Foot Voting, Housing, and Affordability"
The Cato Institute has posted one on its website.
Zoning
What America Can Learn From Japanese Housing
On housing policy, America needs to be less fascist King Kong and more free-market Godzilla.
My New Washington Examiner Article on "Foot Voting, Housing, and Affordability"
We can make housing more affordable and empower people to "vote with their feet" by curbing exclusionary zoning. Left and right should support that instead of counterproductive snake oil like rent control, tariffs, and deportations.
In Connecticut, Zoning Reform Is Back From the Dead
Plus: A challenge to the Trump administration's shift away from "housing first" and reflections on the West's "Great Downzoning"
Federalist Society National Lawyers Convention Panel on Zoning, Property Rights, and the Housing Crisis
I participated along with James Burling (Pacific Legal Foundation), Prof. Peter Byrne (Georgetown), and Prof. Sara Bronin (George Washington University).
Election Day
What races in New York City, New Jersey, and Virginia can tell us about the future of housing policy.
Marc Benioff's Ideas for Fixing San Francisco Keep Getting Worse
The billionaire Salesforce CEO said Trump should use the National Guard to clean up San Francisco's streets.
The Zoning Theory of Everything: Abortion Edition
Every political issue ultimately becomes a zoning issue.
YIMBY Reforms Win Big In State Legislatures in 2025
In 2025, momentum behind state-level supply-side housing reforms accelerated almost everywhere.
In California, YIMBYs Pass Holy Grail Zoning Reform
Plus: San Francisco preliminarily passes citywide upzoning, a New Jersey town backs off family farm seizure, and YIMBY martial law ruled illegal in Hawaii.
Steamed NIMBYs Mandated Saunas To Stop New Housing
Several Lone Star cities are attempting to undermine new state-level zoning reforms by requiring new apartment buildings come with ritzy amenities.
New York City Wants $250,000 From SoHo Artists Just To Stay in Their Homes
The city that artists built now wants them to pay up.
The Trump Administration's Fake Housing Emergency
The results of America's overly burdensome housing regulations aren't great. But they're not an "emergency."
Help Workers by Breaking Down Barriers to Labor Mobility
Labor Day is a great 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.
Capitalism in the Cracks: How Japan's Microspaces Unleash Economic Experimentation
These spaces are so small that most cities would ignore them. Tokyo doesn't.
New Pew Charitable Trusts Repot on "How States and Cities Decimated Americans' Lowest-Cost Housing Option"
They have done so banning or severely restricting low-cost "single-room occupancy" (SRO) housing.
The Man in the Red Beret: What Curtis Sliwa Brings to New York's Wild Mayoral Race
The Guardian Angels founder battles Zohran Mamdani for the anti-establishment vote while he fights Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo for the anti-socialist vote.
America's Housing Shortage Won't Be Fixed With 'One Weird Trick'
Highlighting individual wonky rules that drive up housing costs is good. But getting America building again is going to require more than a few marginal reforms.
Georgia Woman Could Lose $30,000 After Local Government Denies Her Permit To Open Hair Salon
Despite meeting all the requirements, the Board of Commissioners in Clayton County made an arbitrary decision to deny Khalilah Few a conditional use permit to open her salon.
All You Need Is Love (and Deregulation)
Building our way to affordable cities does not require a government-led "post-neoliberal" approach to housing development.
My New Boston Globe Article on Why Massachusetts Should Reject Rent Control, and Instead End Exclusionary Zoning
Rent control would only make the housing crisis worse. Zoning reform would make things better.
Andrew Cuomo Proposes 'Zohran's Law' To Fix the Unfairness of Rent Law Cuomo Signed
Plus: Why Blackstone is good, actually, and a Georgia judge rules for tiny homes.
Minnesota Town Denies Family Permission To Build Affordable Housing Unit on Their Property
The Pepin family is suing the City of Blaine after the City Council used dubious reasoning to deny a permit for additional housing on their property.
One Big Beautiful Housing Supply Bill
Congress considers a consensus housing supply bill while the White House cracks down on the homeless.
Michigan Wineries Win $50 Million in Fight Against Local Zoning Rules
A federal judge ruled that Peninsula Township’s former restrictions on music, events, and grape sourcing violated the rights of local wineries.
Is Housing 'Out of Reach' for More Than Half of Workers?
Plus: Single-stair reform in Nashville, an inclusionary zoning lawsuit in Seattle, and a zoning-created full-service Popeyes in Illinois.
Conservatives Shouldn't Oppose California's Potential Zoning Reforms
You have rights to your property, not to control others.
Seattle Property Owners Challenge Program That Charges 'Affordable Housing' Fees for Building New Homes
A new lawsuit alleges that the city's Mandatory Housing Affordability program unconstitutionally penalizes property owners just for trying to build housing.
Barack Obama Wants Democrats To Be the YIMBY Party. That's Easier Said Than Done.
The housing crisis is bad for national Democrats. At the state level, it's a political winner.
Life as an Academic Defender of the Intuitively Obvious
Academics are supposed to discover nonobvious, counterintituitive truths. But, especially in recent years, much of my work involves defending positions that seem obvious to most laypeople, even though many experts deny them.
The Decentralized Master Planning of Seaside, Florida
The city where The Truman Show was filmed balances communal norms with private preferences.
Pacific Legal Foundation Symposium on the 100th Anniversary of Euclid v. Ambler Realty
The symposium is seeking submissions.
NIMBY Lawsuit Accidentally Abolishes City's Entire Zoning Code
Plus: The Supreme Court declines to hear major eviction moratorium case, Maine passes zoning reform, and why tourist traps are good, actually.
NIMBYism Stifles Housing Construction in Previous Growth Areas
In recent years, exclusionary zoning and other regulatory restrictions have begun to block housing construction in areas where it was once relatively easy.
California Passes Important New YIMBY Housing Law
The new legislation exempts most new urban housing construction from the previously often stifling CEQA law. YIMBY ("yes in my backyard") advocates are cheering.
New Jersey Towns Face Setback in Lawsuit Against State's Affordable Housing Mandate
Despite this setback, a coalition of municipalities is challenging the state’s housing program in federal court.
How Texas Beat California on Housing
YIMBY policies in Texas have led to lower rents and increasing supply. The same cannot be said for California.
Stealing the Farm
Plus: housing reform is killed in Connecticut, bonus ADUs are gutted in San Diego, and two decades of Supreme Court-enabled eminent domain abuse.
My Forthcoming Article on " Public Use, Exclusionary Zoning, and Democracy"
It is part of the Yale Journal on Regulation Symposium on the 20th Anniversary of Kelo v. City of New London.
SpaceX's New Company Town Considers Adopting NIMBY Zoning Code
Starbase, Texas, is rushing to restrict development in the newly incorporated city.
New Study Highlights Housing Shortages Caused by Regulatory Barriers to Construction
The study by leading housing economists Edward Glaeser and Joseph Gyourko finds there are 15 milion fewer housing units in the US than there would be if construction in 2000-2020 had continued at the same pace as in 1980-2000.
Starter Homes Live in Texas, Die in Arizona
Plus: A new constitutional challenge to inclusionary zoning fees, a vetoed ban on rent-recommendation software, and a ill-conceived rent freeze in New York City.
How Trump's Tariffs and Immigration Policies Could Make Housing Even More Expensive
Out-of-control housing costs helped Trump win the 2024 election. Is he about to make the problem worse?
