Urban Institute

Left-NIMBYs Take Another Loss — And This One Is Really Embarrassing

Firefighters in full gear spray water on a flaming dumpster during a training exercise outside, with a building and metal stairs in the background.

The Urban Institute Study Loved By Supply Skeptics Goes Up In Flames

As I wrote last year, the Urban Institute produced a study purporting to show that land use reforms did not substantially increase housing production. I noted that the study has become very influential, particularly among Left-NIMBYs, who want to maintain strict land use controls but not acknowledge that such controls make housing more expensive (which …

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Left NIMBYs Strike Out Yet Again

The Urban Institute study that they cite as evidence for stopping housing does not say what they claim.

The recent publication of Ezra Klein’s and Derek Thompson’s Abundance has the Alt-Left NIMBYs out in force. Again. Outraged by Klein and Thompson’s call for zoning reform, they argue that zoning reform has nothing to do with housing affordability. That’s their standard line. What isn’t standard is their reliance on a quality peer-reviewed study from …

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Does Upzoning Reduce Housing Prices?

A recent careful study says no, but it suffers from unavoidable data and conceptual problems.

A new study on upzoning is out from the highly-respected Urban Institute, and it doesn’t have great news for YIMBYs: We find that reforms that loosen restrictions are associated with a statistically significant 0.8 percent increase in housing supply within three to nine years of reform passage, accounting for new and existing stock. This increase …

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