Valuable Mercatus Center Study Surveys Progress and Setbacks in the Struggle Against Exclusionary Zoning
Eli Kahn and Salim Furth provide overview of developments in the states, and lessons that can be learned.
Zoning
Cross-Ideological Common Ground on Exclusionary Zoning
Policy analyst Justin Hayes summarizes the reasons why conservatives, progressives, and libertarians all have reason to support zoning reform.
Declaring a 'Right' to Housing Won't Solve Homelessness
Instead, try making it easier to build more housing!
Zoning Police Criminalize Kindness in Oregon
A town clamps down on distributing clothes, personal care items, and food to the homeless.
What it Will Take to Make Government Color-Blind
Achieving this goal will require a lot more than banning racial preferences in college admissions. That includes some measures that will make the political right uncomfortable, as well as the left.
San Francisco Gets $20 Million Zoning Reform Grant the Same Week It Halts New Housing For Casting Shadows
This is the second RAISE grant San Francisco has received since the Biden administration retooled the program to reward jurisdictions for adopting zoning reforms.
Philadelphia Considers Zoning Restrictions on Still-Illegal Recreational Pot Shops
Proposed zoning amendments would bar some existing medical dispensaries from participating in recreational sales, should the state ever decide to legalize them.
A Flawed Attempt at a Libertarian Defense of Exclusionary Zoning
Robert Poole's effort to defend exclusionary zoning falls prey to a combination of logical fallacies and factual error.
A Brief History of Single-Family Zoning
California recently enacted legislation that invalidates single-family zoning, as an effort to increase housing supply. Other alternatives would be wiser.
Don't Confuse 'Local Control' With Small Government
Often, it can be exactly the opposite.
In State Legislatures, Targeted Bills and Bipartisan Support Were Key To Passing Housing Reforms
Meanwhile, big, partisan "everything bagel" zoning reform bills that tried to squeeze through the entire YIMBY agenda floundered.
Michigan Supreme Court To Decide If Government Can Warrantlessly Spy on You With Drones
The state court of appeals held previously that unconstitutionally collected evidence could still be used for civil enforcement.
NIMBY Cities Are Using Your Tax Dollars To Lobby Against New Housing
Publicly funded leagues of cities are fighting zoning reforms in state capitals across the country.
Bryan Caplan on NIMBYism and Economic Ignorance
Leading expert on political ignorance and housing comments on evidence indicating that ignorance, not self-interest, is at the root of most opposition to zoning reform.
My New Brennan Center Article on Tyler v. Hennepin County and the Cross-Ideological Case for Stronger Judicial Protection for Constitutional Property Rights
The Tyler home equity theft case is just the tip of a much larger iceberg of property rights issues where stronger judicial protection can protect the interests of the poor and minorities, as well as promote the federalist values of localism and diversity.
Don't Buy the Social Housing Hype
Cities become affordable when they build a lot of housing, not when they subsidize it.
Institute of Economic Affairs Podcast on UK Immigration Policy
British immigration policy expert Sunder Katwala and I discuss the debate over UK immigration policy, which has notable similarities and differences with that in the US.
Home Business Lawsuit Argues People Have a Natural Right To Keep Bees on Their Property
Ellen Finnerty wanted to make and sell honey. The town of Ottawa, Kansas, says that's illegal.
Economists Are Right To Hate Rent Control
Progressives like to argue that rent control policies that exempt new construction don't impact the construction of new housing.
Texas Bill Would Legalize Townhouses
The Texas Senate has passed two bills legalizing building homes on smaller lots and accessory dwelling units across the state.
City Threatens Christian Group With Fines, Prosecution for Giving the Homeless Muffins, Coffee
The Department of Justice is now intervening on behalf of the Orange County, California, group's right to distribute food at its resource center in Santa Ana.
Federal Zoning Bill Would Preempt Local Parking Mandates
The legislation would give property owners "sole discretion" in deciding how many parking spaces they want to build.
The Difference Between Government-Imposed Zoning Restrictions and Private Planned Communities
Unliking zoning, private communities respect property rights, and do not create major barriers to people seeking to "vote with their feet" for a better community.
My Cato Policy Report Article on "Three Constitutional Issues Libertarians Should Make their Own"
The article explains why libertarians should focus much more on constitutional issues arising from zoning, immigration restrictions and racial profiling.
A Home-Based Baker Shouldn't Have To Choose Between Her Dog and Her Business
Each state has different cottage food laws that don’t actually protect public health and safety.
A YIMBY Victory in Montana
Montana's sweeping new zoning reform is both good in itself and a potential model for cross-ideological cooperation on this issue elsewhere.
More Evidence that Cutting Zoning Restrictions Reduces the Price of Housing
A new Pew Charitable Trusts study examining jurisdictions with that reformed zoning finds far lower rent increases there than elsewhere.
California's Builders and YIMBYs at Loggerheads Over Bill Cracking Down on 'Unchecked Sprawl'
Activists who would like to see more housing built and people who build housing for a living would seem to be natural allies. A new bill in the California Legislature is driving them apart.
Why Homelessness Is Worse in California Than in Texas
Today, the Lone Star state counts 90 homeless people per every 100,000 residents. In California, the problem is almost five times as bad.
Amid Inflation Relief, Rental Prices Continue Soaring
Annual inflation fell to 5 percent in March, the lowest mark in two years.
Zoning Restrictions Spread to New Areas, Making Housing Crisis Worse
Harvard economist Edward Glaeser describes a dangerous trend. But a cross-ideological tide of reform might help reverse it.
Texas Considers Bill To Privatize the Business of Issuing Building Permits
If a municipality fails to approve or deny a permit by state-set deadlines, developers could hire private third parties to get the job done.
The First 'Missing Middle' Reform of the Year Has Passed. Will It Get Housing Built?
Arlington's successful passage of a modest missing middle housing reform bill after an intense debate raises the question of whether YIMBY politics can practically fix the problems it sets out to address.
DeSantis Signs Bill Banning Rent Control, Preempting Local Zoning Restrictions
The new law would allow developers to build housing on commercially zoned lots provided they include affordable units.
Blame Regulations, Not Foreign Buyers, for High Housing Costs
Restricting foreign real estate ownership has something for both sides—conservatives don't like foreigners, and progressives don't like capital.
A Town Without Zoning Fights To Stay Free
In Caroline, New York, officials are trying to impose the city's first zoning code. These residents won't have it.
Arlington, Virginia Enacts "Missing Middle" Zoning Reform
The new policy isn't ideal. But it's an important deregulatory step in the right direction, making it easier to build new housing in response to growing demand.
The Zoning Theory of Everything
Land use policies explain the battles over everything from the Great Recession to abortion to Donald Trump.
My Forthcoming Article on "The Case for Expanding the Anticanon of Constitutional Law"
It argues for increasing the number of cases in the Supreme Court's "Hall of Shame" and proposes three worthy additions.
Despite Multiple States Abolishing Single-Family-Only Zoning, Very Few Duplexes and Triplexes Are Being Built
A new report illustrates that the middle of the housing market is still missing.
Is This the Year California's Development-Killing Environmental Review Law Sees Serious Reform?
Yet another court decision stopping a U.C. Berkeley housing project is getting California's policy makers to think bigger about reforming the infamous California Environmental Quality Act.
Will Oregon's Housing Reforms Spark a Building Boom or Be a Bureaucratic Bust?
Lawmakers are considering giving state officials the ability to rewrite NIMBY cities' restrictive zoning codes.
Ex-Lawmakers, Socialist City Councilmember Fight Putting New Housing on Shuttered Denver Golf Course
An oddball coalition of neighborhood activists and left-wing politicians have opposed plans to convert the privately owned site to housing, citing the loss of open space and impacts on gentrification.
The FDA Will Let the Soy Boys Have Their Milk
Plus: Google blocks news to Canadian users in advance of pending media law, Arizona considers zoning reform bill, and more...