Building homes near jobs, transit, and stores costs governments roughly $21,000 less per unit in upfront infrastructure than building at the suburban fringe — and that gap widens over time. America’s housing shortage is well-documented, but policymakers have rarely accounted…
Your Suburb Is Making You Sick, Broke, and Lonely — And the Data Proves It
America’s most sprawling metro areas cost their residents thousands more per year in transportation and energy expenses, produce worse health outcomes, and leave young people cut off from economic opportunity, according to a sweeping new national study. Urban sprawl, the…
Help Save Housing Production – No “New Prop 13”
Several jurisdictions in California have passed poorly-designed tax measures that are hindering housing production while threatening to severely harm the state’s ability to fund vital services like housing, schools, public safety, and fire protection. The California legislature and Governor’s office…
The Homework: May 11, 2026
The 2026 legislative session is in full swing, and so is our legislative agenda. We also look at the costs of sprawling into fire zones, and show how apartment bans raise your rent.
Suburban Apartment Bans May Be Making Poorer Neighborhoods’ Rents Increase
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…