Thread by @jenny_schuetz

2019 was an exciting year for housing/land use policy. In case you were distracted by trivialities (say, the final season of GoT), here's a brief recap of key trends & events.

First, some context: while housing affordability has long been a challenge for poor Americans, middle-class families are increasingly squeezed trying to pay the rent or mortgage.
brookings.edu/blog/up-front/…

Because central cities close to jobs are becoming ever more expensive, moderate- & middle-income families are pushed to distant suburbs in search of decent quality affordable homes. That means longer commutes & more traffic. (h/t @CardiffGarcia )
npr.org/2019/10/22/772…

Housing problems differ across US regions. (Except for poor families - they're basically priced out everywhere). For instance, Midwestern metros have lots of old housing, which is expensive to maintain even when rents aren't that bad.
brookings.edu/blog/the-avenu…

Western metros like Las Vegas have pretty new housing, but highly volatile prices - and big racial gaps in homeownership. That's a problem b/c middle-class families in US rely on home equity to build wealth.
brookings.edu/blog/up-front/…

Why is housing so darn expensive? Along Northeast corridor & West Coast, local govts have adopted highly restrictive zoning that makes it tough to build hsg. It's especially hard to build apartments, duplexes, & townhouses - the most affordable hsg types.
brookings.edu/blog/the-avenu…

Within expensive metros, the wealthiest nhoods use zoning to block new housing - exactly in the communities that offer most economic opportunity. Protecting wealthy (white) nhoods from new hsg exacerbates displacement in lower-income (non-white) areas.
brookings.edu/blog/the-avenu…

But don't despair, gentle reader! 2019 offered signs of hope (and change)! Last Dec, Minneapolis wrote the Comp Plan read round the (planning) world, making it legal to build duplexes & triplexes throughout the city.
brookings.edu/blog/the-avenu…

Not to be outdone, Oregon passed a similar law in July 2019. h/t @henrygrabar
slate.com/business/2019/…

Minneapolis & OR legalized small multifamily buildings in single-family nhoods. While this may seem modest, in high-cost cities, even "gentle density" can yield decent improvements in affordability. @alexbaca @pmcananey & I ran some numbers to check.
brookings.edu/research/gentl…

Meanwhile in CA, @Scott_Wiener tried again to reduce barriers to apartments around transit stations. SB50 made it farther in 2019 than SB 827 in 2018 - maybe 3rd time's the charm in 2020? h/t @dillonliam
latimes.com/politics/la-po…

And just last week, VA jumped into the zoning reform arena with a new bill from @IbraheemSamirah. (Housing twitter had a very busy holiday week.) h/t @kristoncapps
citylab.com/equity/2019/12…

2019 was also a break-out year for housing/land use proposals at the federal level. Most of the Democratic Presidential candidates have put out some type of hsg proposal - including calling for federal incentives for zoning reform. That's yuuuge news!
brookings.edu/blog/the-avenu…

Zoning reform is a rare issue with bipartisan appeal (also bipartisan opposition). The Trump administration in June created an inter-agency Council to examine regulatory barriers to housing at federal, state, & local levels. h/t @LauraKusisto
wsj.com/articles/trump…

And there are a handful of bipartisan bills in Congress addressing land use - the aptly named YIMBY Act & Build More Homes Near Transit Act, courtesy @RepDennyHeck @ToddYoungIN @RepScottPeters. h/t @andersem
sightline.org/2019/10/14/its…

While there's a growing consensus that restrictive zoning is part of the affordability problem, 2019 also saw a resurgence of interest in rent regulation. NYS tightened its existing laws, while CA & OR adopted statewide anti-rent-gouging policies.
brookings.edu/research/is-re…

In an unusual twist, @BernieSanders and @AOC have even proposed national rent regulations. That's probably a political nonstarter for now, but it's remarkable even to have it on the table. h/t @emilymbadger
nytimes.com/2019/09/19/ups…

Finally, 2019 saw growing attention to homelessness, esp in CA. The Trump administration and Gov Gavin Newsom don't exactly see eye to eye on how to fix the problem. h/t @ConorDougherty
nytimes.com/2019/09/17/us/…

What to expect in 2020? Hsg affordability didn't become a crisis (or 2) overnight. Even w/ zoning reform, building enough hsg to bring down costs will take years. For more thoughts on short- & long-term solutions, take a listen! (h/t @mattyglesias) /end
vox.com/2019/5/17/1862…