Rent Check
Kamala Harris’s proposal for a renter’s tax credit sounds nice, but it fails to address the underlying cause of the housing affordability crisis: artificially restricted supply.
News and Commentary
Cities may no longer be the land of opportunity for lower-skilled workers. The article focuses on job opportunities in these areas, but restrictive zoning and land-use regulations dramatically reduce the returns from moving to a higher-wage city for such workers.
Microsoft and Facebook get into the housing game. Their substantial investments are a positive development, but easing the regulatory burden in the housing market would go much further.
New Research
Here’s a fun one: it turns out that communities with more restrictive land-use and zoning regulations have better-quality and more diverse restaurants. The high incomes of those who can actually afford to live in these neighborhoods drives the phenomenon, and these findings are far from an argument in favor of restrictive zoning regulations.
Hispanic retirees, particularly those living in Florida, were among those hardest-hit by the ’08 housing bust. Housing as an investment (especially when there are restrictive zoning regulations) can promise sky-high returns for some, but for many others it’s a risky proposition.
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