How are YIMBY groups changing the political dynamic in cities across the US? A new paper from Jonathan Levine at the University of Michigan examines “ideas common to the pro-housing coalition, together with internal controversies and their implications for vital…
Want to Fight Climate Change? Legalize More Multi-family Housing
How does legalizing apartments help combat climate change? A compelling new study by Berrill et al (2021) shows the dramatic energy efficiency benefits of multifamily housing, with strong evidence that a world with more apartments is a world with fewer…
Black Housing Heroes: Terry Taplin
Losing my apartment motivated me to run for Berkeley City Council. My partner and I were living in southside Telegraph in Berkeley, renting an old apartment that was falling apart. After losing our place, we were temporarily homeless and crashed…
The Embarcadero Institute’s Double-Counting Report is Wrong
As cities around California contend with their latest Regional Housing Needs Assessments — a periodic assignment of housing targets mandated by state law which compels local jurisdictions to legalize the housing needed to accommodate new residents — the anti-housing activists…
Black Homeowners in Crisis from COVID
A new report from Neighborhood Housing Services of LA County is sounding the alarm on the dire straits that Black homeowners in Los Angeles County are facing as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Access to homeownership, and its role…
Getting By on Increased Supply: The Portland Experience
Does legalizing multi-family homes (a.k.a. “upzoning”) just boost asset values for speculative real estate portfolios, or does it produce a tangible benefit with new housing supply? Some research has already explored the nuances around this question, but a new study…
Black Housing Heroes: Lori Gay
For me, the path to my passion about housing was really economics. In school, I was great at math, but it didn’t feel relevant. I also wanted action. So I specialized in consumer economics, which is the study of finance…
California Progressivism is Just Getting Started
Anyone unfortunate enough to spend time watching Fox News will come to discover that Berkeley, Calif. is the right-wing’s favorite toponym for progressivism. It’s nothing new; for decades Berkeley has been a favorite epithet for Republicans looking to tar some…
The Housing Crisis Primed California’s COVID19 Tragedy
When COVID-19 began surging in California in late November, the pandemic was attacking an already sick patient. Despite the state being an early adopter of mask-mandates and social distancing rules, California is the center of America’s COVID-19 tragedy. Between mid-December…
Location, Location, Location: Winning (and Losing) the Housing – Transit Lottery
Do people have innate transportation preferences that they express independently of their living conditions, or does the built environment of our neighborhoods influence those preferences? New evidence from researchers at UCLA and UC Santa Cruz analyzed data from San Francisco’s…