Demystifying Development: Does It Pencil?

Building a baseline understanding of the challenges to housing development is essential to forming thoughtful approaches to reform

For better or worse, significant land reform typically involves radical displacement of existing land owners because land ownership is a principal form of power and wealth.

Because land ownership is a principal form of power and wealth, housing is amont the "lowest and worst" uses for land owners. This is not to say it is not important to you and me, but our experience is skewed because housing is the only significant contact most people have with real-estate.

Intuitively, deregulation - reducing/simplifying zoning laws - seems like it should unleash market forces to solve housing crises.. seems too obvious and yet it’s so rarely tried.

Is it actually a bad idea? Are there examples where it was tried and failed?