Part 1: Why zoning reform isn't solving the housing crisis with Yonah Freemark

Upzoning is often pitched as the silver bullet for the housing crisis — change the rules, let developers build, and supply will bring prices down. But the reality is a lot more complicated. In this episode, host Kate Gasparro sit down with Yonah Freemark to unpack what the research actually tells us about the relationship between zoning reform and housing production across U.S. cities.

Yonah is a principal research associate at the Urban Institute, where he leads the practice area on Fair Housing, Land Use, and Transportation and directs the Land Use Lab. He holds a PhD in urban studies and master's degrees in city planning and transportation from MIT, and his research on zoning, affordable housing, and urban development has been published in the Journal of the American Planning Association, Housing Policy Debate, and Urban Affairs Review, among others. He's also the founder of The Transport Politic, one of the most widely cited independent platforms tracking transit infrastructure investment in the U.S. and globally. 

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why upzoning doesn't guarantee housing gets built — and the market conditions that actually drive development 
• How land values absorb the gains from rezoning before construction ever happens 
• The role of interest rates, developer equity, and financial feasibility in urban housing production 
• Why no single land use policy will solve the housing crisis, and what a more complete urban planning toolkit looks like

This is part one of a two-part series on how zoning, housing supply, and transportation infrastructure are shaping the future of American cities. In the next episode, we bring in Sam Sklar of Exasperated Infrastructure to explore how transit investment, city building, and mobility policy connect to the land use conversation.

Resources:

Upzoning Chicago: Impacts of a Zoning Reform on Property Values and Housing Construction (Urban Affairs Review)

Downzoning Chicago: How Local Land Use Policy has Reduced Houisng Construction and Reinforced Segregation (Urban Findings)

America Has a Housing Shortage. Zoning Changes Near Transit Could Help. (Urban Institute)

Unifying Upzoning with Affordable Housing Production Strategies (Urban Institute)

Austin's Surge of New Housing Construction Drove Down Rents (Pew)

Dallas in Booming- Except for its downtown (Wall Street Journal)

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