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

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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.
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September 16, 2026 FOOTNOTES | ANALYSIS

How quickly should land-use reform change behavior?

Chicago offers an early test of land-use reform: if a rule was constraining viable activity, how quickly should behavior change once the restriction is removed?
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September 7, 2026 FOOTNOTES | NOTE

Corporate purchases remain nationally small

Institutional buyers are a small share of national home purchases, though concentrated in some Sun Belt metros. The measurement question is which threshold counts as institutional in the first place.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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April 14, 2026 MEDIA | ARTICLE

Housing Shortage Isn't Just a Money Problem

Politico examined how federal housing policy aimed at limiting institutional investors may be constraining capital and slowing new housing production, raising concerns about unintended consequences for supply.
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April 9, 2026 HOMEFRONT | NO. 3

The fix is on the table

Homefront briefing on Section 901, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, and the targeted fix needed to protect new housing production.
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April 2, 2026 HOMEFRONT | NO. 2

The market isn't waiting

Homefront briefing on federal housing policy, market behavior, and what uncertainty means for what gets built.
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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
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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.
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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.
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February 27, 2026 SPEAKING | KEYNOTE

Federal housing policy and the states

Remarks at the Council of State Governments East housing event on the emerging federal housing supply agenda, what is moving in Congress, and why state action remains decisive.
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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.
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May 24, 2024 MEDIA | ARTICLE

Is Congress Having Its YIMBY Moment?

Semafor examined the growing bipartisan federal agenda around housing supply, including proposals aimed at reducing barriers to development and rewarding local reform.
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July 14, 2022 MEDIA | ARTICLE

There's a Massive Housing Shortage Across the U.S. Here's How Bad It Is Where You Live

NPR examined the scale of the national housing shortage, drawing on Up for Growth's analysis to show a deficit of millions of homes and the pressure it creates for prices, affordability, and access.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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