Upzoning Laws Don't Reduce Housing Costs and Undermine Local Control
Source: Helen Raleigh. "Politicians Wrongly Think More Zoning Laws Will Fix Housing Costs." March 26, 2026. thefederalist.com
The Gist
The author argues that new laws forcing cities to allow apartments and condos in single-family neighborhoods don't actually make housing cheaper - they just drive up prices and take away local control. She says politicians should focus on real problems like worker shortages and expensive regulations instead.
Conclusion
Politicians should abandon upzoning reforms as a solution to housing affordability because they are ineffective and erode local property rights
Premises
- Empirical evidence from Minneapolis, Oregon, and California shows upzoning resulted in less than 1% housing supply increase over 3-9 years
- Upzoning has actually increased housing costs, with Minneapolis seeing 3-5% higher single-family home prices and Oregon reaching $509,539 median home values with 19.7% annual increases
- Multiple communities have rejected upzoning through lawsuits, recall elections, and ballot measures, demonstrating widespread public opposition
- Single-family homes provide essential benefits like privacy, independence, and property control that Americans value and are willing to pay premiums for
- Other factors like construction worker shortages and regulatory burdens (such as Colorado's 'green' building codes adding tens of thousands in costs) are the real drivers of housing unaffordability
Assumptions
- Past performance of upzoning policies in liberal jurisdictions predicts future outcomes elsewhere
- Local community preferences should take precedence over state and federal housing policy
- Single-family zoning preserves an inherently valuable 'American way of life'
- Market-driven housing costs reflect legitimate consumer preferences rather than artificial scarcity
- Top-down government intervention in housing markets is inherently less effective than local control