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

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October 5, 2026 FOOTNOTES | ANALYSIS

FHA apartment loan limits should now keep pace with construction costs

Section 211 of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act resets FHA’s per-unit multifamily loan limits and ties future annual adjustments to multifamily construction costs, helping preserve financing capacity as development costs rise.
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September 19, 2026 FOOTNOTES | ANALYSIS

Old housing can depreciate and still become less affordable

Filtering is not simply what happens when buildings get older. Whether depreciation becomes affordability depends on the supply response around them.
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September 16, 2026 FOOTNOTES | ANALYSIS

Multifamily insurance is becoming a capital problem

If owners cannot pass higher insurance costs through to tenants, the next effects may show up in property values, debt capacity, equity returns, and investment decisions.
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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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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 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.
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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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June 12, 2020 WRITING | ESSAY

The downstream impacts of the rental crisis

I follow missed rent payments through owners, workers, lenders, local governments, and future development to show how a rental shock propagates.
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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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March 8, 2019 WRITING | ESSAY

It’s not just more supply – addressing existing housing plays an important role in curing America’s broken housing ecosystem

I argue that housing policy has to distinguish shortage from vacancy, quality, preservation, and affordability problems because different markets fail in different ways.
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