There’s more going on in supply restriction than the scarcity of land. Zoning restrictions and things like weaponized environmental review play a massive role.
In a whopping 38% of San Francisco, a city known for its horrendous housing market, it is illegal to build anything other than single-family homes. Is it really so shocking that there’s a supply issue when you have land use policies like this?
While I support on principle the rights of lower levels of government to do what they think is best, I will admit that in practice this often leads to outcomes that are frustrating and disappointing enough that I think we probably need some limits on that power.
Ultimately, local regulation of land use is a pretty classical Prisoner’s Dilemma; by all local communities optimizing for their own blinded utility, they’re creating a net worse situation for everyone involved, including themselves. It’s really the textbook example of a case where a higher authority like a state government needs to come in and force everyone to actually collaborate.
If every community increases housing supply by a little bit, the effect on the local “character” is nearly unnoticeable but the housing market stays healthy. If they all refuse, the market melts down and we get the mess we have now (and parents have the comical audacity to then complain about how their kids can’t afford to live in the same area).
There’s more going on in supply restriction than the scarcity of land. Zoning restrictions and things like weaponized environmental review play a massive role.
In a whopping 38% of San Francisco, a city known for its horrendous housing market, it is illegal to build anything other than single-family homes. Is it really so shocking that there’s a supply issue when you have land use policies like this?
While I support on principle the rights of lower levels of government to do what they think is best, I will admit that in practice this often leads to outcomes that are frustrating and disappointing enough that I think we probably need some limits on that power.
Ultimately, local regulation of land use is a pretty classical Prisoner’s Dilemma; by all local communities optimizing for their own blinded utility, they’re creating a net worse situation for everyone involved, including themselves. It’s really the textbook example of a case where a higher authority like a state government needs to come in and force everyone to actually collaborate.
If every community increases housing supply by a little bit, the effect on the local “character” is nearly unnoticeable but the housing market stays healthy. If they all refuse, the market melts down and we get the mess we have now (and parents have the comical audacity to then complain about how their kids can’t afford to live in the same area).
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