The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
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.
Today, the Washington Examiner published my article on "Foot Voting, Housing, and Affordability." Here is an excerpt:
Affordability was the biggest issue in the 2025 off-year elections.
In various forms, affordability played a major role in the winning state campaigns of center-left candidates such as Govs.-elect Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) and Abigail Spanberger (D-VA). It also propelled a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, to the leadership of the largest U.S. city, a major global financial hub. A year earlier, the affordability issue played a crucial role in President Donald Trump's 2024 win.
A central element of the affordability problem in recent years has been the high cost of housing, to the point where many people are prevented from living in the communities where they would like to be. Housing shortages increase the cost of living, prevent millions from "moving to opportunity," and curtail people's ability to "vote with their feet."
The problem of housing affordability is attracting increasing public attention. But many politicians in both parties continue to promote policies that make it worse: rent control in the case of many leftists, such as Mamdani, and tariffs and deportation of immigrants when it comes to Republicans, led by Trump. Both parties would do better to drop the counterproductive snake oil and instead focus on eliminating exclusionary zoning and other regulatory restrictions, which are the main causes of the crisis.
The rest of the article develops these points in detail, explaining the benefits of curbing exclusionary zoning, and also why rent control, deportations, and tariffs all actually exacerbate the housing crisis instead of alleviating it.
I cover some of these issues in greater detail in my recent Texas Law Review article, "The Constitutional Case Against Exclusionary Zoning" (coauthored with Josh Braver).
