News and Commentary
Noah Smith writes at Bloomberg Opinion about the necessity of new construction to address the housing crisis ongoing in many large cities. He points to development restrictions as the culprit, raising costs and keeping countless people from moving into productive cities. Smith suggests upzoning policies such as ones adopted in Oregon and the city of Minneapolis could go a long way to expanding density and fixing this problem.
The Brookings Institution’s Jenny Scheutz analyzes the regulatory barriers that make housing development riskier and more expensive. She stresses the importance of speeding up the process to lower risks, costs, and encourage developers to take on more projects with regional bank lending.
Writing in The Davis Vanguard, David Greenwald discusses California’s SB 50 and the issue of affordable housing. He sees both revenue for redevelopment and requirements for a certain portion of affordable housing constructed as pathways to confronting the issue locally.
Missoula’s city council has required 20% of a condominium project meet an affordable requirement in exchange for changes to zoning. Some on the council have stressed that a higher affordable unit requirement means the remaining units will be priced higher to subsidize, pushing up nearby housing prices in the process.
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