News and Commentary
SB 50 has been postponed until January 2020. The bill was postponed and will likely undergo revisions, after fierce opposition from neighborhood supervisors and other local groups.
Displacement from gentrification is a problem–though often posed as a false dilemma in the housing policy debate–but Noah Smith argues that the effects of poverty in declining cities is far worse than those of displacement.
Emily and Michael Hamilton clear the air on whether or not land-use regulations amount to a tax, and whether liberalization would simply distribute more money to landowners. While restrictive zoning can reduce the value of desirable land (by reducing the potential returns to construction) it in turn boosts the value of otherwise undesirable land by displacing residents to these areas.
New Research
Homeowners associations (HOAs), though not themselves government agencies or regulatory bodies, have the same effects as exclusionary zoning. They increase segregation and land values, with the latter increasing with zoning restrictiveness.
A new paper models the effects of zoning, rent control, housing vouchers, and tax credits to measure the effects on construction, labor supply, and a host of other metrics in city living. The authors find that there are substantial gains to relaxing zoning at the city center, and also from rent control and housing voucher programs.
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