There may be hope in the midst of the housing crisis. A handful of cities and states have started making changes to zoning rules in an effort to make more homes available and affordable.
Here’s Five Fast Facts on Zoning Reform:
- 🗺️ In the Zone - This zoning reform creates new rules that allow multi-family homes, increases density near transit, and streamlines the permit process for builders.
- 🏡 Pew Pew - Studies by the Pew Research Center and the University of California Berkeley show those changes are working. The key factor is that they’ve made apartments less expensive and easier to build which led to a lot of new housing in a short period of time.
- 🚧 Great White North - Minneapolis, MN has set the standard by eliminating single-family zoning and minimum parking requirements. This allows the construction of two- and three-family homes to be built in every neighborhood. They added 12% to its housing stock over five years, which is far more than other cities. Even crazier, rent only increased 1% over that time, compared to 14% nationwide.
- 🏠 California Dreamin’ - California has enacted a large chunk of statewide legislation, including one that requires cities and counties to allow accessory dwelling units (secondary units on the same lot). It worked: 28,000 Granny Flats have been built since 2022.
- ⛔ What does this look like moving forward? - It hasn’t worked everywhere, though. In both Montana and Texas, the NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) folks successfully sued to stop zoning changes. They feared that these reforms would lead to unsustainable growth, could damage the environment, and change communities for the worse.
🔥Bottom line: It turns out we have some local and state governments who are willing to do more than shrug and say “oh well.” People need to be able to live within their means and it’s comforting to see some action work toward that.
What do you think of these reforms?
Let us know by connecting with us on Facebook and Instagram! Also, remember to share this newsletter with your friends & coworkers!
Btw, If you’ve read this far and haven’t yet signed up for the weekly Paycheckology newsletter, CLICK HERE!
