Housing
Blog
Making Progress in Breaking the Housing Log Jam
LA’s housing reforms are working, but don’t go far enough
Bass has done so through a series of executive directives. Upon taking office in December 2022, Bass signed Executive Directive 1, which instructed city departments to complete reviews of 100% affordable housing applications within 60 days of receipt. At the time, it took city officials an average of six to ...
California
Blame slow-growth policies for California’s housing and homeless crises
By Steven Greenhut & Wayne Winegarden The roots of California’s housing problems aren’t hard to trace given the reams of house-price and population data going back decades. The Los Angeles Times reported the median price of a California home in 1970 was only 5 percent higher than the national average at $24,300. That ...
Free Cities
Steve Greenhut and Wayne Winegarden – Giving Housing Supply a Boost
Our guests this week are Steve Greenhut, director of PRI’s Free Cities Center and Wayne Winegarden, senior fellow in business and economics. The two have joined forces to produce PRI’s latest mini book from the Free Cities Center, “Giving Housing Supply a Boost: How to Improve Affordability and Reduce Homelessness.” ...
Book
New Free Cities Book
Reforms to Increase Affordability, Homebuilding Would Go Far to Alleviate State’s Housing, Homeless Crises
SACRAMENTO – Rolling back policies that have created unaffordable costs of living and made homebuilding prohibitively expensive can alleviate the state’s housing and homeless problems, finds a new book released today by the Free Cities Center at the nonpartisan, free-market think tank, the Pacific Research Institute. Click here to download ...
Blog
Read latest on SF's housing woes
So-Called Vacant Housing Tax Will Make SF’s Rental Housing Problems Even Worse
San Francisco’s residential vacancy rate is around 13% to 15%. Tens of thousands of housing units are unoccupied. Some might see this as merely the natural order of things, the market response to the conditions on the ground. But politicians, and a majority of voters – 54% – believe it’s ...
Blog
Read the latest on California's housing crisis
Building infrastructure is key to lowering housing costs
Housing. Shelter. Room at the inn. A hearth and a home. From the moment neolithic humans emerged from caves to build structures in the open, they needed some place warm and dry to call home. It is a primal necessity and a prerequisite for civilization. This imperative is not lost ...
California
Is 2024 Finally The Year of a California Homebuilding Breakthrough?
On Jan. 1, a package of housing legislation that was passed in 2023 took effect. Will the results be a homebuilding boom? California’s housing gap is implausibly wide, so it’s going to require a historic effort to catch up. In 2015, the Legislative Analyst’s Office said that “on top of ...
Blog
Learn about latest effort to subvert free market housing reform
Protect property rights to boost housing and preserve history
When I came to Orange County in 1987 to write editorials for The Orange County Register, I rented an apartment in Huntington Beach about half a mile from the famous beach to the south. Half a mile to the west was Main Street, then a funky row of surfboard shops, ...
Blog
Shutting a homeless camp that resembled ‘Lord of the Flies’ – Part Two
Shutting a homeless camp that resembled ‘Lord of the Flies’ Part Two Political polarization shaped the battle over Spokane’s misnamed ‘Camp Hope’ Jeremy Lott | December 15, 2023 Jeffrey Finer is a lawyer who represented Jewels Helping Hands, one of the charities that was involved in bringing services to Spokane, ...
Blog
Read latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Portland overrules bureaucrats and streamlines permitting
Back in March 2021, city auditors issued a blunt assessment of the city’s permitting system. “Getting a building permit in Portland can be a frustratingly slow process,” the auditors concluded, noting the city had for years missed its own timeliness goals. “Delays can affect the economy and motivate property owners ...
Making Progress in Breaking the Housing Log Jam
LA’s housing reforms are working, but don’t go far enough
Bass has done so through a series of executive directives. Upon taking office in December 2022, Bass signed Executive Directive 1, which instructed city departments to complete reviews of 100% affordable housing applications within 60 days of receipt. At the time, it took city officials an average of six to ...
Blame slow-growth policies for California’s housing and homeless crises
By Steven Greenhut & Wayne Winegarden The roots of California’s housing problems aren’t hard to trace given the reams of house-price and population data going back decades. The Los Angeles Times reported the median price of a California home in 1970 was only 5 percent higher than the national average at $24,300. That ...
Steve Greenhut and Wayne Winegarden – Giving Housing Supply a Boost
Our guests this week are Steve Greenhut, director of PRI’s Free Cities Center and Wayne Winegarden, senior fellow in business and economics. The two have joined forces to produce PRI’s latest mini book from the Free Cities Center, “Giving Housing Supply a Boost: How to Improve Affordability and Reduce Homelessness.” ...
New Free Cities Book
Reforms to Increase Affordability, Homebuilding Would Go Far to Alleviate State’s Housing, Homeless Crises
SACRAMENTO – Rolling back policies that have created unaffordable costs of living and made homebuilding prohibitively expensive can alleviate the state’s housing and homeless problems, finds a new book released today by the Free Cities Center at the nonpartisan, free-market think tank, the Pacific Research Institute. Click here to download ...
Read latest on SF's housing woes
So-Called Vacant Housing Tax Will Make SF’s Rental Housing Problems Even Worse
San Francisco’s residential vacancy rate is around 13% to 15%. Tens of thousands of housing units are unoccupied. Some might see this as merely the natural order of things, the market response to the conditions on the ground. But politicians, and a majority of voters – 54% – believe it’s ...
Read the latest on California's housing crisis
Building infrastructure is key to lowering housing costs
Housing. Shelter. Room at the inn. A hearth and a home. From the moment neolithic humans emerged from caves to build structures in the open, they needed some place warm and dry to call home. It is a primal necessity and a prerequisite for civilization. This imperative is not lost ...
Is 2024 Finally The Year of a California Homebuilding Breakthrough?
On Jan. 1, a package of housing legislation that was passed in 2023 took effect. Will the results be a homebuilding boom? California’s housing gap is implausibly wide, so it’s going to require a historic effort to catch up. In 2015, the Legislative Analyst’s Office said that “on top of ...
Learn about latest effort to subvert free market housing reform
Protect property rights to boost housing and preserve history
When I came to Orange County in 1987 to write editorials for The Orange County Register, I rented an apartment in Huntington Beach about half a mile from the famous beach to the south. Half a mile to the west was Main Street, then a funky row of surfboard shops, ...
Shutting a homeless camp that resembled ‘Lord of the Flies’ – Part Two
Shutting a homeless camp that resembled ‘Lord of the Flies’ Part Two Political polarization shaped the battle over Spokane’s misnamed ‘Camp Hope’ Jeremy Lott | December 15, 2023 Jeffrey Finer is a lawyer who represented Jewels Helping Hands, one of the charities that was involved in bringing services to Spokane, ...
Read latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Portland overrules bureaucrats and streamlines permitting
Back in March 2021, city auditors issued a blunt assessment of the city’s permitting system. “Getting a building permit in Portland can be a frustratingly slow process,” the auditors concluded, noting the city had for years missed its own timeliness goals. “Delays can affect the economy and motivate property owners ...
