When suburbs block apartments, rents in nearby poor neighborhoods may rise by about $27 a month, according to a new national study. Most research on exclusionary zoning has focused on costs within the communities that adopt it; this study finds…
How the Northwest’s Wildfire Crisis is a Sprawl Crisis
Wildfire hazard zones across the Pacific Northwest are expanding — and according to Sightline Institute, so is the public cost. Nearly 1.6 million residents lived in high-risk areas in 2023, up 8 percent since 2018, with population growing fastest in…
The Homework: April 22, 2026
We’re gearing up for the April 24 policy committee deadline. We’re also looking at how Measure ULA is backfiring, and how we can build half a million apartments a year. (We’ve done it before!)
We’ve Built 500,000 Apartments a Year Before. Here’s How.
America is short somewhere between 2 and 7.4 million homes, depending on how you count, and half of all renters now spend more than 30% of their income on housing. Yet a new report shows annual apartment construction has held…
L.A.’s Mansion Tax Was Meant to Fund Housing. Research Says It May Be Backfiring.
New research suggests Los Angeles’s “Mansion Tax” cancels out a portion of the revenue it was meant to generate. Measure ULA, passed by voters in November 2022, adds a 4% to 5.5% levy on property sales above $5 million to…
New Bill Would Bring More High-Rise Housing to Transit Hubs in California’s Largest Cities
Legislation Addresses Local Permitting Delays, Financing Gaps for Taller Buildings For too long, the economics of building high-rise housing in California’s downtowns simply haven’t worked. AB 2074 changes that. SAN DIEGO – California’s seven largest and most transit-rich cities could…
SB 79 Is on Track: What HCD’s New Advisory Memo Means
Big picture: HCD has provided new clarity, and we are full steam ahead on SB 79 implementation. HCD just released a new advisory memo to help California’s Metropolitan Planning Organizations map SB 79’s coverage in the state’s 4 major metros.…
The Homework: March 20, 2026
We celebrate an SB 684 and SB 1123 success. We also look at how housing policy is climate policy, and show the high costs of LA’s long wait for building permits.
Economists Put a Price on Obtaining a Building Permit in LA. It’s Not Small.
If you want to build something in Los Angeles County, waiting for a permit takes time — and now there’s a study estimating the cost of that wait. Researchers find that vacant land with an approved building permit sells for…
The Most Bipartisan Climate Policy is Housing Policy
The average American spends 170% more time stuck in traffic today than in 1980, and a new report argues that this is because uncoordinated state and local zoning decisions have made car dependence the default, pushing people toward longer drives…