The Homework: July 23, 2026
Welcome to the July 23, 2026 edition of The Homework, the official newsletter of California YIMBY — legislative updates, news clips, housing research and analysis, and the latest writings from the California YIMBY team.
News from Sacramento
The state legislature is now in recess until Monday, Aug 3, 2026. State legislators are back in their districts for constituent and in-district events. No legislative hearings will take place until after the legislature reconvenes on August 3.
Be sure to follow California YIMBY’s Twitter and Bluesky to get more up-to-date news on housing policy, legislation, and research. If you find this newsletter valuable, forward it to a friend.
Housing Research & Analysis
Austin Added 120,000 Homes – You Won’t Believe What Happened Next
Austin’s median rent is 4% below the national median today, down from a 15% premium above the national median in 2021. The shift follows a decade of zoning and permitting reforms that enabled the city to add 120,000 homes, even as it wrestled with a jobs boom that drove up demand. For renters watching costs climb elsewhere, Austin tests a simple idea: build enough homes, and will rents fall?
In Austin’s Surge of New Housing Construction Drove Down Rents, Pew Charitable Trust researchers Liz Clifford, Seva Rodnyansky, and Dennis Su examine how a decade of zoning, permitting, and financing reforms has reshaped Austin’s rental market and what that means for renters at every income level.
Key Takeaways:
- Rent Reversal. Austin’s median rent fell from $1,546 in December 2021 to $1,296 in January 2026, moving from 15% above the national median to 4% below it, despite the city gaining 18,000 residents.
- More Relief for Older Housing Stock. Rents in older Class C buildings, which house lower-income tenants, fell 11.4% from 2023 to 2024, more than four times the 2.6% drop in luxury Class A buildings.
- Affordability Gain. The income needed to afford Austin’s median one-bedroom rent fell from 95% of area median income (AMI, a standard benchmark for local earnings) in 2017 to 84% in 2024.
Can Upzoning Lead to More Homes? The Data Says Yes.
Cities and states across the US are finding that a key way to lower housing costs is to make it easier to build more homes. Reforms such as upzoning let developers build taller, denser buildings; construction of new homes follows. A new Urban Institute study tests that assumption in New York City and Philadelphia, and finds that upzoning does work.
In “How Big Upzonings Affect Housing Supply,” Urban Institute researchers Yipeng Su, Will Curran-Groome, and Yonah Freemark study seven New York City rezonings and Philadelphia’s 2012 zoning rewrite to see whether loosened zoning rules turn into homes. Their answer supports the core case for upzoning, with an important asterisk: it works, but it is not always sufficient on its own to boost housing.
Key Takeaways:
- Demand Meets Supply. A once-industrial Brooklyn neighborhood, Gowanus, saw an estimated 5,400 additional homes built within four years of its 2021 rezoning, the largest jump of any neighborhood studied. In a hot market, removing the zoning ceiling lets buildings go up fast.
- Bigger Buildings, More Homes. Philadelphia’s 2012 zoning overhaul let each project hold more homes, and an expiring tax break added urgency, fueling a 2019–2021 boom with up to 4,000 more housing units permitted citywide in 2021 alone.
- Upzoning Is Not Always Enough. Bronx’s 2018 Jerome Avenue rezoning brought no meaningful housing gains, and much of North, Northeast, and Southwest Philadelphia remained quiet despite new capacity. Zoning clears the legal path, but it can’t create demand or offset other costs on its own.
Houser Headlines
- Palo Alto sees wave of housing projects as state law kicks in
- More apartments are coming to LA near transit hubs, thanks to new law
- Here’s where the state’s new housing law will (and won’t) apply in San Diego
- SANDAG overrules San Diego, requiring high-rise housing near 17 disputed bus stops
- Riverside Council approves transit-oriented development plan for downtown Metrolink area
- California strips Bay Area city of local housing control over delays with massive development
- For some families, the answer to the housing crisis is in the backyard
- 749-square-foot San Jose ADU condo sells for $530K; first-of-its-kind for CA
- California targets impact fees in new affordable housing legislation
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