To be clear, housing affordability is a defining crisis of our time for millions of Americans. There are entire metro areas, such as those of coastal California and the Northeast, that are almost systematically pricing out their own working classes at this point. The issue is morally and practically urgent. And there is powerful evidence that zoning codes which sharply limit the growth of desirable cities and neighborhoods are one primary cause of the problem.But the evidence that rolling back those zoning codes will offer a meaningful or rapid solution to high housing costs is far weaker. And so, the fear I have is that this moment of opportunity to fix a historic mistake—zoning our cities to force neighborhoods into artificial stasis—will fade away (or, worse, provoke backlash) when upzoning fails to deliver upon the more overzealous promises of its champions.
Source: Upzoning Might Not Lower Housing Costs. Do It Anyway.
