About

Blockers and Pillars come from Up for Growth’s housing framework.

Select any filters. Results update as you go.

Clear all

Showing 28 of 52 pieces

Results

October 1, 2026 SPEAKING | KEYNOTE

Permission is not production

Remarks at the Natural State Housing Summit in Little Rock on the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, where the chain between a federal law and a built home breaks down in Arkansas, and why capital is part of supply.
Open
June 23, 2026 WRITING | ESSAY

The $546,000 Door

Chris LaGrand and I explain why Build America, Buy America lands hardest on affordable deals, where capped rents and fixed awards leave added costs nowhere to hide.
Open
June 2, 2026 HOMEFRONT | NO. 4

A win, not the win

Homefront briefing on the House's 396–13 passage of the ROAD to Housing Act, the build-to-rent fix it delivered, and whether the Senate will keep it.
Open
May 28, 2026 FOOTNOTES | NOTE

Building near transit pencils out for cities

Where a home is built changes what it costs a city to serve it. The fiscal math on infill and the housing math point in the same direction.
Open
May 28, 2026 FOOTNOTES | NOTE

New market-rate housing is not just for rich renters

New apartments are routinely described as luxury. Denver’s numbers test that assumption, and raise the harder question of what new market-rate supply does for rents further down the market.
Open
May 28, 2026 FOOTNOTES | NOTE

Wisconsin shows the ROAD Act's affordability case

Three provisions, three different theories of what makes housing expensive: who buys existing homes, how long review takes, and whether local governments can plan past one appropriations cycle.
Open
May 26, 2026 FOOTNOTES | NOTE

House THUD bill protects core housing programs but trims public housing

Appropriations reveal priorities more plainly than speeches. This bill protects vouchers and homelessness aid while trimming public housing, and asks for performance without funding the underlying shortage.
Open
May 24, 2026 FOOTNOTES | NOTE

A bipartisan housing bill clears the House, but the Senate test still matters

A 396–13 vote signals unusual agreement on housing. Whether that consensus survives the Senate, and whether the manufactured-housing provisions change what gets built, are separate questions.
Open
May 24, 2026 FOOTNOTES | NOTE

Waters and Warren split on housing strategy, even as both want a win

Two legislators who both want a housing win disagree about whether investor limits protect tenants or constrain the capital stack. The split is really about which constraint they think binds.
Open
May 14, 2026 FOOTNOTES | NOTE

Terner’s simulator shows why housing policy is local

The same zoning or financing reform can produce very different results in Denver, San Diego, and Tucson. What varies is which constraint actually binds in a given market.
Open
April 2, 2026 MEDIA | PODCAST

Build to rent is collateral damage

I joined The Rent Roll to explain how the Road to Housing Act's BTR provision froze capital, why the seven-year sell rule is unworkable, and what Congress should fix
Open
March 25, 2026 HOMEFRONT | NO. 1

The supply bill that reduces supply

Homefront briefing on federal housing policy and what the build-to-rent restriction could mean for housing supply.
Open
March 24, 2026 WRITING | ESSAY

Why limiting investment time horizons for build-to-rent communities is bad for affordable housing

I explain why treating purpose-built rental neighborhoods like scattered investor-owned homes risks shrinking the capital stack behind new housing supply.
Open
December 12, 2025 SPEAKING | KEYNOTE

Housing needs a system that can deliver

Remarks on why America's housing shortage is a systems problem, how fragmented governance produces underbuilding, and why a modern housing framework is needed to align local action, state capacity, federal investment, and accountability.
Open
May 22, 2025 WRITING | ESSAY

Using Our Public Land for Public Benefit

I explain why land scarcity now drives housing costs everywhere, and how long-term ground leases on underused public land could unlock hundreds of thousands of homes.
Open
May 10, 2025 WRITING | ESSAY

We didn't just price out renters. We priced out the ability to build.

How regulation, delay, and rising development costs turned a housing affordability crisis into a breakdown in the basic ability to build — and where that leaves federal policy.
Open
July 14, 2022 MEDIA | ARTICLE

The Housing Shortage Isn't Just a Coastal Crisis Anymore

The New York Times examined how the housing shortage had spread well beyond high-cost coastal metros, drawing on Up for Growth's analysis to show underproduction as a national constraint.
Open
October 15, 2021 WRITING | ESSAY

Courage at all levels

I examine why local housing reform needs support from state and federal institutions, especially when capacity, incentives, mandates, and political risk shape implementation.
Open
July 29, 2021 WRITING | ESSAY

Ending single-family zoning? Not quite.

I separate what zoning reform can do from what it cannot, arguing for more housing options without pretending land-use reform solves every constraint.
Open
February 28, 2020 WRITING | ESSAY

Solutions to the housing crisis come in all sizes – including small homes

I use accessory dwelling units to show why legalizing housing is only the first step when financing, permitting, construction, and tax barriers remain.
Open
October 18, 2019 WRITING | ESSAY

Part One of our Series on the Broken Housing Ecosystem: Impact Fees

I introduce a series on the broken housing ecosystem by showing how impact fees that rise as growth slows can undercut the development cities need.
Open
May 17, 2019 WRITING | ESSAY

The Legacy of Redlining Lives on Today Through Exclusionary Zoning

I compare 1930s redlining grades with zoning maps in St. Louis and Portland to show how exclusionary single-family zoning sustains old patterns of segregation.
Open
May 14, 2019 WRITING | ESSAY

The fifth wave of housing advocacy

I place the emerging supply and access movement in a longer history of American housing policy and ask whether a fifth wave was forming.
Open
April 25, 2019 WRITING | ESSAY

The Cautionary Tale of Portland’s Inclusionary Housing Policy

Noel Johnson and I examine Portland's permit data after inclusionary housing took effect and argue the policy was reducing housing production at most income levels.
Open
January 18, 2019 WRITING | ESSAY

A Housing Agenda for Rural America

I use a visit to Mason County, Washington, to show that rural communities face their own housing shortage, and what local, state, and federal policy could do.
Open
October 23, 2018 WRITING | ESSAY

Why older homes become more unaffordable if new homes cost more to build

I trace how higher development costs can suppress new production and transmit scarcity into the prices of older homes in high-demand markets.
Open
May 16, 2018 MEDIA | ARTICLE

The American Housing Crisis Might Be Our Next Big Political Issue

Bloomberg CityLab examined the growing effort to make housing affordability and underproduction a national policy issue, including Up for Growth's early work on housing supply.
Open
April 16, 2018 MEDIA | ARTICLE

Just How Widespread Is the Housing Shortage?

The Wall Street Journal examined how broadly the housing shortage extends across the country, drawing on Up for Growth's early work on underproduction and the consequences of failing to build enough homes.
Open