Demographics, Not Growth, Fuel Housing Demand; New Builds Lag
"Demographic change—not population growth—is the main driver of housing demand. And while the surge in new construction [in California] is welcome, it has not yet translated into meaningful relief for households struggling with high costs." https://t.co/SvBbqFg8yx
Upzonings Spur Massive Housing Growth in High‑Demand Areas
Just released paper from @urbaninstitute examining upzonings in New York and Philadelphia argues that upzonings can lead to a major increase in housing production, particularly in areas with strong demand https://t.co/fwejSrMjF8
LA Wildfire Recovery Lags Behind Other Disasters
Fifteen months after the Los Angeles wildfires, rebuilding is lagging behind other disasters. "There’s certainly no chance of them being this outlier of fast recovery. It’s not physically possible at this point." https://t.co/N6OxdteMDr https://t.co/U5ys5NJfCX
LA Wildfire Rebuilding Trails Other California Disaster Recoveries
The record recovery that isn't. Rebuilding after last year's wildfires in Los Angeles lags behind other recent natural disasters in California https://t.co/N6OxdteMDr https://t.co/10oE7ljWcb
Bonus Law Boosts California Housing Production More Than ADUs
Interesting new paper out today that contends California's most effective housing production laws in the past decade — aside from ADUs — are changes to a prior policy that allowed developers to build more units in exchange for some income restrictions.
LA Wildfire Survivors Cite Insurance Woes in Rebuilding
The most constant complaint I've heard from LA wildfire survivors struggling to rebuild has been about problems with their insurance
Homeowner Advocates Treat Neighborhood as Personal Zoning Stake
I was struck by this homeowner advocate's stance that buying a house in a single-family-home neighborhood means you should have a kind of "vesting" in that neighborhood remaining single-family — the same as a developer with zoning for their projects https://t.co/Lb979044mJ...
State Law Compels LA Council to Rethink Apartment Ban
Last year, the Los Angeles City Council voted to keep apartments out of single-family-home neighborhoods. A new state law is forcing councilmembers to change their minds. For @POLITICOPro subscribers: https://t.co/Lb979044mJ
California's Lebowski Loophole Lets Heirs Keep Low Taxes
How do the children of homeowners in California get to inherit their parents' low property tax rates? We did the definitive story on what became known as "the Lebowski Loophole" in 2018 https://t.co/gzdAP9B4HC
LA Council Forms Committee to Revise Mansion Tax Amid Threat
For all the LA "mansion tax" watchers out there, the LA city council created a three-member committee today to recommend changes to the initiative for a possible new local vote on the Nov ballot. Comes as a potential Nov statewide...
Trump's LA Wildfire Rebuild Plan Collapses Before Launch
NEW: The Trump plan to take over LA's wildfire rebuild is over before it started. https://t.co/JBoXSiUqhh
Housing: Unexpected Alliance Between Trump and Mamdani
From the weekend: Why it makes sense that housing is where Trump and Mamdani can find common cause and how Mamdani and LA's Nithya Raman and seeking to upend a half century of urban housing politics and a decade-long fight...
Renter‑Focused Progressive Coalition Redefines Urban Housing Politics
Two rising leaders in New York and Los Angeles are pushing for a fundamental revolution in urban housing politics: A unified progressive movement centered on renters instead of homeowners https://t.co/xC3VrNCfNM
Mamdani Admin Uses Bankruptcy to Shift Rent-Stabilized Buildings Publicly
This NYT piece doesn't get the framing around housing politics right, but does lay out explicitly that the Mamdani administration's strategy is to let rent-stabilized buildings go into bankruptcy and use that as leverage for public or nonprofit ownership https://t.co/MVpSmuHQ9W
Altadena Renters Lag Behind Post‑wildfire Recovery, People Matter
Renter recovery is lagging in Altadena after last year's wildfire, a new @UCLAlatino study finds: “The real question is when we’re prioritizing return to Altadena to what it once was, is that based on the housing or is that based...