The Homework: November 27, 2024
Welcome to the November 27, 2024 Main 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
November has been unusually busy in California housing policy; during what’s normally a quiet season, momentum has been building for more pro-housing reforms, including at a hearing of the Assembly Select Committee on Permitting Reform, chaired by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks. The proceedings featured Michael Manville, Chair of UCLA’s Urban Planning Department.
Manville made the case for additional efforts to streamline both infill housing development and clean energy projects. He praised recent successes in the legislature with ADU legislation, but argued for bolder steps to accelerate homebuilding and progress on affordability.
The full Legislature reconvenes on December 2, with swearing-in ceremonies for both returning and newly-elected members of the Assembly and Senate; new legislation can begin to be submitted on the same day.
To review a list of California YIMBY’s endorsed candidates and election results, please visit our election review article on our website.
Housing Research & Analysis
Did Someone Say … Housing Policy is (Still) Climate Policy?
Can infill housing reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help California achieve its climate goals?
In US urban land-use reform: a strategy for energy sufficiency, Terner Center associate research director Zack Subin and his coauthors argue that it can: by concentrating new housing growth in dense, walkable neighborhoods, California could reduce total vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and avoid 8 million tons of climate pollution.
Key Takeaways:
- Concentrating California’s new housing construction in the lowest-VMT neighborhoods has the potential to meaningfully reduce overall statewide VMT.
- The reduction in driving would avoid up to 8 million tons of climate pollution annually by 2033.
- If we want to meet our climate goals, California should move rapidly to encourage infill housing construction in already-walkable neighborhoods.
Think Vertically, Act Horizontally: Affordable Homeownership in Tennessee
While supply-focused housing policy reforms in coastal states usually focus on expanding the stock of multifamily rental housing, cities in the south have pursued a different strategy: making it easier to build and sell small-lot single family homes for ownership.
In Tennessee’s HPR Law And Its Transformation of Nashville’s Housing Market, Charles Gardner and Alex Pemberton look at how Nashville’s Horizontal Property Regime (HPR) process has enabled the development of more than 20,000 for-sale homes since 2010.
Key Takeaways:
- Tennessee’s Horizontal Property Regime created an easy, fast, inexpensive, and predictable process for permitting small-lot single family homes that homebuyers can finance with conventional mortgages in Nashville.
- The HPR process has permitted more than 20,000 infill homes, which are often significantly more affordable than comparable fee-simple single family homes.
- The success of the HPR process suggests that streamlining small-lot subdivision could significantly expand access to lower-cost homeownership.
Houser Headlines
- Democrats ignored key issue — the cost of living — and it cost them the election
- Scoop: The YIMBYs are coming — to Congress – POLITICO
- California’s progressive epicenter just went YIMBY
- Climate-Fueled Insurance Hikes Are Fueling Delinquent Mortgages, New Study Finds – Mother Jones
- Michael Weinstein’s nightmare scenario – POLITICO
- A Ballot Measure About Rent Control Is Dividing California Democrats – Mother Jones
- Sunny but expensive: Thousands more workers left California than arrived during a stretch last year. Here’s where they went.
- California has the highest number of workers leaving the state. Where are they going?
- Bay Area home values have risen everywhere — except in this city
- State taking a stronger stance in local housing battles – Sacramento Business Journal
- A housing champion takes on the energy transition – POLITICO
YIMBY Social – Top Posts
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