CITIES & STATES
Encourage cities and states to launch initiatives that invest in new housing construction, with a focus on starter homes.
Incentivize cities and states to ease up on land use restrictions and other undue regulations, which is decimating housing affordability.
Incentivize cities and states to provide a broader and more affordable range of housing options to alleviate tight housing market conditions.
Incentivize cities and states to modernize zoning laws and code requirements and to streamline permitting processes.
Recommend that city and state governments endorse smaller lot size limits for new construction.
Urge states to look closely at state-level zoning preemption programs that have the effect of banning single-family zoning. This is a necessary step because, as of 2019, 75 percent of the residential land in America was zoned exclusively for single-family use. Zoning that does not allow for any multifamily development to this degree is unsustainable as our population continues to grow.
Not only have decades of single-family zoning regulations severely limited the housing supply and artificially raised prices, but they have made housing exclusionary, perpetuating racial and class segregation and preventing families from living in neighborhoods with better schools and job opportunities.