The nation’s most expensive housing markets haven’t actually run out of land. What they have run out of is their commitment to provide housing for their citizens. Too often, “open space” laws are putting land off limits for residential development. Environmental laws give priority to butterflies and fairy shrimp over human beings who need a place to live. Zoning ordinances only allow new homes to be built on huge lots to limit the number of new residents who can move into an area. Urban growth boundaries artificially inflate land values within the boundaries where development is allowed. And restrictions attempt to run multifamily housing development out of town.
Looking down from an airplane on the American landscape passing below provides an impressive view of our sprawling land resources. There’s still plenty of room for the buffalo to roam and for the deer and the antelope to play. Unfortunately, the parts of the country where economic growth is strongest are concentrated into a small geographic area. Just five states — California, Texas, Florida, Georgia and Washington — are expected to account for more than half of the population growth in the next 15 years. These are the places where market forces can speak most convincingly in our efforts to balance the need for housing and a high quality of life at the same time as we preserve our greenspace and natural resources.
American consumers are able to make wise choices about where and how they live so long as their government doesn’t take those choices away from them. Our communities need to adopt innovative land-use policies that encourage mixed-use and pedestrian-friendly development. They need to plan for residential, commercial, recreational and industrial uses of the land. They need to revitalize established suburbs and inner city markets and encourage infill development. They need to pursue balanced and reliable ways to build roads, schools, water and sewer facilities and other infrastructure.
We know from the Census Bureau that on average more than one million new households will be formed annually for the next decade. These households need a place to live. Ignoring this need is a prescription for disaster: spiraling housing prices, stratification of the housing-haves and the housing have-nots and the sapping of the economic and spiritual vitality of our communities. We are eminently capable of rising to this challenge and we can reconcile our need for housing with our other needs. Many of our towns and cities are already pursuing this approach, with resounding success. Considering what is at stake, many more need to follow that example and put housing at the very top of the public agenda.
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