The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
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.
An important new National Bureau of Economic Research study by leading housing economists Edward Glaeser and Joseph Gyourko concludes that reductions in housing construction—likely caused by regulatory barriers such as zoning restrictions—have greatly exacerbated housing shortages and increased prices since 2000. Here is the abstract:
Housing prices across much of America have hit historic highs, while less housing is being built. If the U.S. housing stock had expanded at the same rate from 2000-2020 as it did from 1980-2000, there would be 15 million more housing units. This paper analyzes the decline of America's new housing supply, focusing on large sunbelt markets such as Atlanta, Dallas, Miami and Phoenix that were once building superstars. New housing growth rates have decreased and converged across these and many other metros, and prices have risen most where new supply has fallen the most. A model illustrates that structural estimation of long-term supply elasticity is difficult because variables that make places more attractive are likely to change neighborhood composition, which itself is likely to influence permitting. Our framework also suggests that as barriers to building become more important and heterogeneous across place, the positive connection between building and home prices and the negative connection between building and density will both attenuate. We document both of these trends throughout America's housing markets. In the sunbelt, these changes manifest as substantially less building in lower density census tracts with higher home prices. America's suburban frontier appears to be closing.
This adds to an already extensive body of research reaching similar conclusions. The new NBER paper is notable because it covers such a wide swath of evidence, particularly with respect to Sunbelt cities.
In a 2024 Texas Law Review article coauthored with Josh Braver, we argue that exclusionary zoning that greatly limits housing construction violates the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment, and outline ways in which a combination of litigation and political action can be used to combat it. See also our much shorter non-academic article on the same topic, in the Atlantic.
