Looking for soothing reading while we chew our fingernails about the debt ceiling negotiations? Excellent! How about a retrospective on mortgage lending in the DC region from the Great Recession through the pandemic? New from @stanveuger Leah Brooks & me:
centerforwashingtonareastudies.org/state_of_the_c… Mortgage lending volume offers insights into both housing market fundamentals-household growth & income dynamics-and financial conditions, like interest rates & credit tightness. Seen through this lens, housing markets went through some wild swings 2007-2021.

So many thoughts on this terrific--yet somewhat worrying--piece... First, it's great that the US has a bunch of cities that are attractive places to live & work! Much better for people & businesses than countries w/ only one dominant metro (ahem, UK).
nytimes.com/interactive/20… And broadly speaking, metros benefit from inflows of well-paid, highly-educated workers. Good for local tax base, more spending at locally serving businesses, etc. Would have loved to see quotes from mayors of places like Denver or Nashville.

Starting now: Kathy 0’Regan @FurmanCenterNYU moderating eviction prevention panel @AREUEA_ORG, featuring Boaz Abramson, Rob Collinson, Winnie van Dijk, @VickiBeen, Marisa Novato. Rob Collinson: tenants who go through completed evictions experience sustained financial distress, increased homelessness, worse credit. Impacts worse for Black women, often most vulnerable.

I’m thrilled to announce today’s release of my book, Fixer Upper: How to repair America’s broken housing systems. A short thread on why I wrote the book and what I hope it will add to public debates:
brook.gs/3BDqu1P
brookings.edu/book/fixer-upp… Housing conversations often focus on narrowly framed problems: short-term rent spikes, pandemic eviction worries, CA’s supply crisis. But these aren’t separate problems affecting different stakeholders & requiring different solutions. They share common underlying causes.

It’s great to see White House using their massive platform to highlight land use/housing supply problems. Given limits of federal authority here, bully pulpit is an important & mostly underused tool.

https://twitter.com/yimbyaction/status/1454113543058427908

Brian Deese notes that to boost housing supply, we need to know (a) which zoning restrictions to change and (b) how to build local/state political support around those changes. It's not going to look the same everywhere.

Friends, I’ve been exploring Richmond this week. It has some amazing housing—the stuff of NIMBY nightmares & YIMBY dreams. Small homes on small lots, w/ side setbacks so narrow you can touch both homes. The horror! And where do people store their giant metal boxes?? Contemporary architecture on a street full of traditional homes. Defiling neighborhood character! You can almost see property values plummet in response!

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/…

#HousingOpportunity Ingrid Ellen opens: NIMBYism from wealthy homeowners isn’t only opposition to new housing. Renters are also nervous that development drives up rents. What does evidence tell us? Some supply skeptics argue that new development won’t bring down rents, others argue new housing will actually drive up rents. Let’s unpack the assumptions behind those arguments.

Nice explainer by @rjacobus on why voters in expensive places don't believe more housing will reduce rents. Namely, hsg markets are segmented, so new high-end apts won't (quickly) reduce low-end rents. I mostly agree, w/ some friendly amendments.
shelterforce.org/2019/02/19/why… Yes, hsg mkts are segmented by price tier. But differences btwn luxury, mid-priced, & "affordable" hsg are only partly about structure age/quality. It's also about location. We can build new apts w/ fancy kitchens anywhere. But we can't easily recreate desirable nhood amenities.

New blogpost coming shortly putting Senator Warren's housing bill in context, but a few big-picture thoughts in the meantime. Summary: there's a lot in this bill for traditional affordable housing advocates, YIMBYs, and housing economists to like.
theatlantic.com/politics/archi… Any credible plan to improve affordability _must_ address housing supply, especially to tackle ways in which local govts make it hard to build apartments. Warren's bill does this front-and-center (offers infrastructure $ to local govts if they reform zoning).