From a new working paper “The Price of Housing in the United States, 1890-2006” by Ronan C. Lyons, Allison Shertzer, Rowena Gray & David N. Agorastos (emphasis added): “Zoning was adopted by almost every city in our sample during the 1920s. We see a slightly steeper gradient over the next two periods (coefficients of .48 […]
Zoning Matters for Rising Housing Costs, Especially After 1980
Zoning Matters for Rising Housing Costs, Especially After 1980
11 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic history, economics of regulation, environmental economics, income redistribution, Public Choice, rentseeking, urban economics Tags: housing affordability, land supply, zoning
Finally a great housing package
05 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, transport economics, urban economics Tags: housing affordability, land supply, zoning
Chris Bishop has announced changes to housing laws which will make a huge difference to housing affordability. Almost every expert has said that to reduce pressure on house prices you need to both build up and build out. The NIMBYs oppose building up and the Greenies opposes building out. Phil Rayford in 2017 had some […]
Finally a great housing package
The Great Post-Pandemic Population Shift
26 May 2024 Leave a comment
in labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, population economics, transport economics, urban economics Tags: land supply
A little more than half of America’s incorporated cities collectively lost 2.7 million residents between 2020 and 2023, according to estimates released by the Census Bureau earlier this week. New York City alone lost almost 500,000 residents, or 5.5 percent of its population, while the next 20 biggest losers together … Continue reading →
The Great Post-Pandemic Population Shift
Bish delivers for Wellington
13 May 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, environmental economics, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, urban economics Tags: housing affordability, land supply, zoning
Chris Bishop announced: “I have agreed with the Council’s alternative recommendations in nine instances, relating to development around Adelaide Road, the walkable catchment around the City Centre Zone (including Hay St), character precincts, building heights and controls on the interface of the City Centre Zone and Moir and Hania Street, setbacks for 1-3 residential units, […]
Bish delivers for Wellington
Electricity barrier: net zero climate policy means the UK housing crisis is getting worse
05 May 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, Public Choice, public economics, transport economics, urban economics Tags: land supply
If there isn’t enough power for the new homes, where’s the power for all the soon-to-be mandatory electric vehicles supposed to come from? Net zero policy by climate obsessives is busy degrading the entire power grid to an increasingly part-time system. This is just one of the knock-on effects. – – – Our inadequate electricity […]
Electricity barrier: net zero climate policy means the UK housing crisis is getting worse
NIMBYism explained
16 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of regulation, income redistribution, law and economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, property rights, public economics, rentseeking, transport economics, urban economics Tags: housing affordability, land supply, zoning
Biden’s Signature Climate Law Has a Major Achilles’ Heel — And Dems Are Making It Worse
31 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: land supply, solar power, wind power, zoning
…you can’t get anything built because of these statutes,” Mike McKenna, a Republican strategist with extensive experience in and around the energy sector, told the DCNF about Congressional gridlock on permitting reform.
Biden’s Signature Climate Law Has a Major Achilles’ Heel — And Dems Are Making It Worse
Do Me a Personal Favor: Please Pre-Order *Build, Baby, Build* Now
22 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, income redistribution, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking Tags: land supply, zoning
I started writing Build, Baby, Build: The Science and Ethics of Housing Regulation, in the early weeks of Covid. Now, with the kind cooperation of the Cato Institute, my second non-fiction graphic novel releases on May 1, 2024. That’s less than six weeks away.The official coverPlease forgive my laughable arrogance, but I assure you that…
Do Me a Personal Favor: Please Pre-Order *Build, Baby, Build* Now
Even Lowerer Hutt
07 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, income redistribution, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, regulation, urban economics Tags: housing affordability, land supply, zoning
One annoying thing about writing a Saturday column for the Stuff papers is never knowing whether a piece will show up in print.I’d thought this one was a banger. I’ll be talking about related issues tomorrow night as part of a panel for A City for People. 🟨🟪 Our speaker line up has dropped! 🟪🟨Join us on…
Even Lowerer Hutt
DON BRASH: PERHAPS THE MOST IMPORTANT SPEECH FROM THE NEW GOVERNMENT SO FAR
03 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, income redistribution, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, regulation, rentseeking, transport economics, urban economics Tags: land supply, zoning
Last week, Housing Minister Chris Bishop gave perhaps the most important speech by the new Government since the election. In a speech to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, he said he wanted the ratio of house prices to median household income to more than halve to between 3 and 5 over the next 10…
DON BRASH: PERHAPS THE MOST IMPORTANT SPEECH FROM THE NEW GOVERNMENT SO FAR
The Uncompetitive Urban Land Markets Theory of Everything
03 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, environmental economics, income redistribution, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, regulation, rentseeking, urban economics Tags: housing affordability, land supply, zoning
The Housing Theory of Everything has one of those wonderful self-explanatory titles. A good title matters. The recent and thorough essay explains how the anglosphere’s unnecessarily expensive housing affects, well, everything. Or at least almost everything.Zoning makes it too hard to build houses where people want to build. Urban containment policies block new subdivisions, so…
The Uncompetitive Urban Land Markets Theory of Everything
The US Housing Market Is Very Quickly Becoming Unaffordable
27 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of regulation, politics - USA, urban economics Tags: land supply, zoning
In a post from July 2021, I discussed housing affordability and “zoning taxes” — in other words, how land use restrictions such as zoning were driving up the cost of housing in some US cities. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and New York stood out as the clear outliers, with “zoning taxes” adding several multiples […]
The US Housing Market Is Very Quickly Becoming Unaffordable
Why Britain’s economy is failing
04 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming Tags: British politics, land supply, zoning
In the past five years, the number of applications to connect to the electricity grid — many of them for solar energy generation and storage — has increased tenfold, with waits of up to 15 years. The underinvestment is restricting the flow of cheap energy from Scottish wind farms to population centers in England and adding to […]
Why Britain’s economy is failing
Land supply is everything to housing affordability
17 Jan 2022 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, law and economics, libertarianism, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, property rights, public economics, urban economics Tags: housing affordability, land supply, zoning
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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