It’s become perhaps the most widely accepted truism in urban development and economic policy circles: NIMBY zoning and overly restrictive land-use policies and building codes keep housing prices high, making superstar cities like New York and San Francisco less affordable. Plus, they take a huge bite out of the U.S. economy as a whole.
Remedying this has won wide support from urban economists and city builders on both sides of the political aisle. In the February 2016 Economic Report of the President and in a follow-up report that advocated for a new housing policy toolkit, the Obama administration indicted unduly strict land-use rules as leading to damaging rents and holding back American innovation and economic progress.
