Opinion: The Rent Is Too Damn High—and It’s Going To Stay That Way

Reason’s Christian Britschgi outlines what happens when growing cities are constrained by restrictive housing policies. 

 Experts say cities should add one unit of new housing for every two new jobs that come to town. America’s boom cities are nowhere close to that. The San Francisco metro area has added 6.8 jobs for every new housing permit issued between 2010 and 2015. In Los Angeles, the ratio was 4.7 jobs for every housing permit. In New York, it was three jobs for every new housing permit issued.

 Cities can’t keep up with the inflow of new residents because they’ve made it as difficult as possible to add additional units, accomplishing this with restrictive zoning codes that limit how much new housing can be built and lengthy approval processes that ensure whatever new residential developments are permitted then take years to complete.

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