Rental Housing
The rental market and the policy that shapes it: vouchers and Section 8, multifamily production and preservation, insurance and operating costs, and the conditions facing renters across income levels.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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