A new Michael Manville (2021) paper asks: how can coastal liberals reconcile their egalitarian values with exclusionary land-use policies that exacerbate inequality? California survey data suggests that homeownership can give liberals a NIMBY streak. Key takeaways: Self-identified liberal homeowners in…
How Transit Makes Housing More Affordable
A new study by Matan Singer at the University of Michigan covering twenty-seven metropolitan regions shows how proximity to transit can reduce housing cost burdens for low-income households by reducing transportation costs. While public transit is substantially less expensive than…
Re-opening the Golden Door
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother…
California YIMBY Statement on the Passage of Senate Bill 10
“Help is on the way for California’s middle-class families” SACRAMENTO – Today California YIMBY CEO Brian Hanlon released the following statement regarding the final passage of Senate Bill 10 through the state legislature: “California’s middle-class workers and families have long…
California YIMBY Celebrates the Passage of Senate Bill 9
“We just took a giant leap toward more affordable home ownership” SACRAMENTO – Today California YIMBY CEO Brian Hanlon released the following statement regarding the passage of Senate Bills 9 in the State Assembly: “With the passage of SB 9…
Solving the “Missing Middle” with Gentle Density: It’s Gentle
Senate Bill 9 has received a fair bit of fanfare for its relatively minor proposition: allowing lot splits and duplexes to be permitted on properties currently zoned for only one home. UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation has a…
President Biden’s Treasury Department Says: YIMBY
A recent article by Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo underscores a range of key findings for the Biden Administration’s housing policy efforts. Key takeaways: Affordable housing is central to providing economic opportunity, and the lack of it is…
VIDEO: Let’s build affordable housing for everyone
What do we mean when we say “affordable housing”? For most Californians, it means housing they can afford, based on their salary. And for lower-income Californians, it means subsidized housing that keeps them securely housed in homes that don’t…
Exclusionary Zoning and Exclusionary Schools: Two Sides of Same Coin?
A new paper by Jacob Krimmel at the University of Pennsylvania explores a novel connection between residential zoning and the broader landscape of segregation in the United States: school funding formulae. Key takeaways: When municipal governments in California lost control…
The Zoning Tax: $400,000, House Not Included
A new working paper from Gyourko and Krimmel (2021) analyzes new data on single-family housing construction and land use regulations, and finds that cities with restrictive zoning are in effect charging a “zoning tax”— and in some cases in California,…