There are many reasons, going back to large federal programs that incentivized the construction of less-affordable housing types and policies that accelerated economic inequality overall. More recently, supply chain disruptions and shifting labor markets have slowed new housing supply. 

But unprecedented rules about how private land can be used—like low-density zoning codes and parking mandates instituted over the last century—are key culprits. Most of these rules continue to this day, even though they are logistically the easiest to improve.

Some have origins in legitimate public health concerns—for example, prohibiting homes near polluting factories. Other rules were considered logical at the time they were created but are now acknowledged to have been disastrous, such as spreading out residential developments for the purpose of gaining “light and air,” or promoting the idea that cities should prioritize car parking. And still other rules were racially and economically discriminatory by design, such as widely-adopted zoning templates that banned apartments and imposed barriers to home ownership.

Over the past 50 years, these zoning rules have sharply curtailed housing production, particularly in the country’s most job-rich regions.

In turn, this has not only inflated rents and home prices, it locked these regions into a self-reinforcing spiral of car dependency, transit divestment, pollution, road violence, economic segregation, decreased economic productivity and opportunity, and widespread state and local fiscal crises.

Housing affordability for all will require effort on multiple policy fronts. But the good news is that several cities and states are taking effective actions now, and more are being proposed each year. And this is happening around the country, thanks to the widespread acknowledgement of the housing supply crisis. Neighborhood Institute is in the process of assembling best practices and model legislation.