youtu.be/QQYMUMTI7fk?... Economic research shows that building new market-rate homes can start chains of moves that ultimately free up much cheaper ones. Here, Pew trace a real-life chain starting with a luxury building and ending with a low-income family being able to reunite in a home of their own

Cities have been losing families. We also know families strongly prefer housing with 3+ bedrooms. Would they still benefit if we built a bunch of new studios? I think so. In a new post, I review research on the connectedness of these housing submarkets. pencillingout.substack.com/p/can-new-st...

[email protected] calls for more statutes in US cities. My particular nomination is that DC should have a statue of Stanislav Petrov, ideally unveiled at a (hopeful, future) time when the US and Russia have something positive to celebrate. www.slowboring.com/p/america-ne...

Have you ever seen a scale map of the solar system? Where you learn that despite the vast distance between Earth and Mars, the outer planets are just incomprehensibly beyond? This has been a tweet about Tokyo

Japan observations thread, April 1-14 ⬇️

New Zealand observations thread, March 2-31, 2026 ⬇️

I always wondered why there was a Selim Rd in Silver Spring. Now I know: Selim (no relation) was the actual *discoverer* of the original silver spring in what's now Acorn Park. americanaristocracy.com/houses/silve...

Gift link, probably the funniest thing the Wall Street Journal has done this year.

We did it! After years of work, our Downtown for All zoning reform plan has passed the New Haven Board of Alders! Our legislation significantly expands how much housing can be built in our city's core, and it will make a real difference for New Haven families. 🧵More details:

One way to reduce condo defect liability: stop forcing architects to design buildings that leak. HCD’s “objective design standards” guide *encourages* making building envelopes more complex, heightening leak and therefore defect lawsuit risk cao-94612.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/documents/Ap...

NEW: There were lots of lessons for YIMBYs and housing scholars at the Urban Econ Association conference. My favorite papers were those that offered some cautions or leaden linings to popular ideas. #UEAMontreal2025 marketurbanism.com/2025/11/03/h...

Maybe fire departments in colonial-era cities like Santa Fe should buy appropriately-sized vehicles so they can reach all the residents, rather than expecting "good civic planning" to make wider streets??

New post, words about words marketurbanism.com/2025/10/15/u...

Overheard: "Son, what are you doing?? You may not rollerblade on the stairs!!"

To the lawyers out there: how are public art requirements constitutional? What is the conceivable nexus between building a building and creating a need for more art? The new building will reduce the community's art per capita?

So far in 2025, 11 cities have clearly signaled that the era of mandatory parking is coming to an end! 🎉 parkingreform.org/mandates-map/

Happy (?) Columbus (???) Day! This "holiday" (I'm working...you're probably working) is Exhibit A in the case for a federal holiday shakeup.

It's like the miracle for the Widow at Zarephath, except with a bottle of Frank's Red Hot that's been Basically Empty since 2022.

Pew finds something that everybody in codes and standards knows but few will say out loud: we apply far stricter fire safety standards to apartments than to houses. www.pew.org/en/research-...

Tireless Mercatus team @salimfurth.bsky.social @ebwhamilton.bsky.social @charlescgardner.bsky.social just dropped 18 (!) strategies for state govts to increase housing supply. Love the ideas to limit "lawsuits of questionable merit" [ahem, Virginia]. www.mercatus.org/research/pol...

If it can get 75,000 signatures, Massachusetts voters will be able to vote on a ballot initiative in 2026 limiting minimum residential lot sizes to 5,000 sq. ft. in areas with public water and sewer bankerandtradesman.com/minimum-lot-...

Me: Please generate a random list of cities and towns in NY ChatGPT: {thinks...} Amenia, Albion, Poughkeepsie, Albany, Adams, Troy, Allegany, Amsterdam.. Me: What are the odds that 3/4 of your random sample would start with the letter "A"? ChatGPT: ... 1 in 30 billion

Overheard: 6 y.o.: "The question is, if two self-driving cars crash into each other, whose fault is it?" 10 y.o., thoughtfully: "I dunno." #raisingthemright

It was a privilege to talk with the one and only Newt Gingrich for his podcast. The housing cost crunch has a generational inflection, and it's encouraging when senior statesmen listen & speak up on behalf of those younger than me. omny.fm/shows/newts-...

3 y.o. is talking about going to the Apple Store (by which she means the store that sells apples, oranges, bread, milk, etc.)

I had a great chat with Marina Rubina for her podcast, *Who Killed the Starter Home* - check it out starterhomepodcast.podbean.com/e/not-a-bubb...

As we head into YIMBYtown (aka Super Bowl of housing supply), I've been reflecting on recent statewide policy wins & losses. One takeaway: which bills cross the finish line in a given year is kinda hard to predict. www.mercatus.org/research/pol...

Huge thanks to the folks at Mercatus Center for editing & publication support. If you want more details on where housing had bonkers successful leg sessions in 2025, make sure to check out @salimfurth.bsky.social's super piece! www.mercatus.org/research/pol...

Want to know how to streamline permitting for homes in your state? Check out our research. So far, it covers 6 states, with 4 more (AZ, PA, NY, IL) in the pipeline. www.mercatus.org/housing-stre...

the typical renter household in LA that moves into a *new* apartment makes below median income. Renters that live in new apartments are high income *amongst renters* but have below average incomes *amongst everyone*

From me, using ACS data from IPUMS. Pretty similar to what @salimfurth.bsky.social finds www.metroabundance.org/how-inclusio...

Zak and I coded over 900 upzoning requests introduced in Chicago to analyze how home builders responded to the city’s parking reform (part of the Connected Communities ordinance) Guess what: they responded by building less car parking 👏

Striking piece in which a reporter calls up the sources relied on by the anti-monopoly movement to claim construction oligopolies are driving up housing costs—and finds that none of them agree with the activists who supposedly basing their ideas on them.

New post: marketurbanism.com/2025/07/25/y...

YIMBY organizing would not have gotten very far over the past several years if advocates weren't earnestly committed to explaining complex and highly technical issues in land use to laypeople.

@bobbyfijan.bsky.social, did I find the world's worst apartment layout? And is it the most-viewed layout diagram in history??That's Henry Fonda at the top of the frame.

Kids are building a setup with blocks. 8 y.o. "Only houses allowed. If I see an apartment building, I'll wreck it" WHAT HAVE I DONE WRONG 😭

Some next-level nominative determinism

Arlington's missing middle policy ending single-family-only zoning was effectively reinstated Tuesday by a Virginia panel of judges, who ruled that homeowners suing over that effort did not adequately take real estate developers to court, too. www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...

@salimfurth.bsky.social makes the case that DC should not settle for a new stadium at Stadium-Armory and should instead press for more housing through incremental development. It will be Hill East East: www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

"if football stadiums made cities interesting and engaging, the Ravens’ M&T Bank Stadium would link together bustling neighborhoods. Instead, its gloomy emptiness extends across the adjacent blocks..." Hey @salimfurth.bsky.social great article! www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Nice article, featuring @salimfurth.bsky.social and pals, on the busiest state legislative for the pro-housing cause yet www.governing.com

All the usual caveats about trusting proprietary rent data apply here (it tends to capture the high end of the market best, since that’s what gets listed on major national listing sites), but, this is a lot:

My least controversial transit opinion is that single-ride paper tickets make good bookmarks.

I think decision making in school siting is an important frontier in land use policy reform. Lots of states have regulations or guidelines that either require or suggest very large sites for new schools.

The completely ridiculous cost of building in the U.S., Federal Reserve edition: The Fed is spending $2.5 BILLION on renovating their DC HQ building. www.mercatus.org/research/pol...

First a huge thank you to @sarabronin.bsky.social whose research team at the @zoningatlas.bsky.social provided information on how SB 785 would impact all of the Texas cities in their amazing zoning project!

"HUD Code housing is one of the country’s most important sources of housing affordable to low-income people without subsidy. Zoning codes are one factor limiting the use of manufactured housing" - @salimfurth.bsky.social @ebwhamilton.bsky.social www.mercatus.org/research/pol...

What a great legislative session for attainable housing Texas just had! SB 785, which ensures most TX cities zone at least one district for by-right manufactured housing, is headed to the Governor's desk. 🧵