Under Governor Gavin Newsom's new housing affordability reforms, several state housing financing programs will now be brought together under one roof.
More Housing is Possible: a National Town Hall · Burhan for State Senate
Join Vice Mayor Burhan Azeem and the people behind the Montana Miracle, California’s SB79, and the ROAD to Housing Act to discuss recent wins and what comes next for the housing movement. Speakers will dig into the policy that's moving the needle, the campaigns and organizing that got us here, and how local leadership can turn big ideas into more homes. Expect sharp takes, lively panels, and the collective brainpower of the country's most effective housing advocates in one (virtual) room.
Governor Newsom Signs Bill to Lower ADU Costs
Today, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law SB 1117, a bill which eliminates arbitrary fees on accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and will lower the cost of constructing this popular type of housing.
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Coefficient has directed over $4 billion in grants since 2014. Our mission is to help others as much as we can with the resources available to us.
San Francisco cuts affordable housing requirement from 15% to 5%
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to reduce the rate after the city controller warned new housing was too difficult to build.
Liquidity versus Wealth in Household Debt Obligations: Evidence from Housing Policy in the Great Recession
We exploit variation in mortgage modifications to disentangle the impact of reducing long-term obligations with no change in short-term payments ("wealth"), and reducing short-term payments with no change in long-term obligations ("liquidity"). Using regression discontinuity and difference-in-differences research designs with administrative data measuring default and consumption, we find that principal reductions that increase wealth without affecting liquidity have no effect, while maturity extensions that increase only liquidity have large effects. This suggests that liquidity drives default and consumption decisions for borrowers in our sample and that distressed debt restructurings can be redesigned with substantial gains to borrowers, lenders, and taxpayers.
The Folk Economics of Housing
Why is housing supply so severely restricted in US cities and suburbs? Urban economists offer two primary hypotheses: homeowner self-interest and political fragmentation. Homeowners, who outnumber and have organizational advantages over renters, are said to lobby against development to protect their property values. The fragmentation hypothesis emphasizes that development's negative externalities are borne locally while most of the benefits accrue regionally or nationally, leading localities to block housing. This paper offers another explanation: ordinary people simply do not believe that adding more housing to the regional stock would reduce housing prices. Across three original surveys of urban and suburban residents, only a minority of respondents say that a large, positive, regional housing supply shock would reduce prices or rents. These beliefs are weakly held and unstable (suggesting people have given the issue little thought), but respondents do have stable views about who is to blame for high housing prices: developers and landlords. Large, bipartisan supermajorities support price controls, demand subsidies, and restrictions on putative bad actors, policies which they believe would be more effective than supply liberalization for widespread affordability. We discuss the implications of these findings for efforts to expand the supply of housing.
America’s housing was built for a world we no longer live in
The United States is turning 250. Everything we want for the next 50 years starts with fixing housing.
Funding Fairer Housing - The McKell Institute
A levy on individual landholdings worth over $20m could deliver a stamp duty cut for all new houses, enhancing supply and fairness.
Housing ladder spillovers
Rich newcomers can raise low-end rents, and adding high-end homes can lower them
Zohran Mamdani drops video laying out big cuts to New York City spending
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani outlined $27 million in municipal spending cuts while vowing to keep residents informed "every step of the way."
Rules of Thumb in Household Savings Decisions: Estimation Using Threshold Regression
The rules of thumb offered by financial advisors regarding how much to hold in liquid reserves vary widely and usually imply far greater sums than low-income ho
The Elusive Cost Savings of the Prefabricated Home
It’s long been believed the constantly rising costs of new home construction, and lackluster improvements in construction productivity more generally, are fundamentally a problem of production methods.
Almost nowhere in California is building enough, according to the state. Here’s why
California ordered cities and counties to plan for 2.5 million new homes by 2030. Only five jurisdictions are on track to hit their numbers.
Communities Across the Nation Want to Add Housing. Which Metropolitan Areas Are Adding the Most?
Between 2020 and 2025, four Texas metropolitan areas—Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio—accounted for 13.3 percent of total US housing supply growth.
The Housing Shortage Is a Major Driver of Poverty
Housing costs are usually the largest item in a household’s budget and can determine a family’s financial stability.
Two-bedroom apartments hit $6K for the first time in SF. The same apartment in Oakland is less than half that, but the clock is ticking.
While Oakland has long been a more affordable alternative, the rental gap between SF and Oakland is now at a staggering 128%. We break down why the East Bay deal might be changing as vacancy rates tighten.
