Lot size requirements are making new “starter” homes in Utah hard to come by. Many places have .25acre minimums, and so of course the builder is going o fill that lost with a bigger home to maximize returns. And our gov just tries to shame builders into “doing the right thing.” Maybe he should just keep asking us to pray, but this time for affordable housing.
Chicago failure, we top the list of biggest decrease of apartment building over the last year. Here are the 20 metro areas with the greatest increase and decrease in apartment construction from 2024 to 2025.A lot of red Southern cities in the green, but Chicago, Madison, MSP, Portland, San Jose, San Francisco all in the top 10 for greatest declines. pic.twitter.com/G2udyRcNR9— Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban) September 8, 2025
This is only matters if the kind of apartments being built are affordable. When I was living in Milwaukee, most of the apartments built would not fit into the affordable category.
This is limited to the city of Berkeley regarding this meme that landlords prefer to sit on empty apartments for long periods of time for reasons. Well it is not really happening at Berkeley (they passed a law to tax apartments that have been left unoccupied for a long period) "Researchers have described vacancy rates of 6-8% as being “healthy,” according to the California Department of Housing and Community Development. The units the city identified as being vacant for at least six months represented 1.6% of the nearly 54,000 homes in Berkeley." https://www.berkeleyside.org/2025/0...vacancy rates,nearly 54,000 homes in Berkeley. one of the most consistent arguments against building new housing is that developers will just hold it vacant (for reasons?), but Berkeley’s data just completely debunked it pic.twitter.com/N4gA5B0MEt— Armand Domalewski (@ArmandDoma) September 9, 2025
A while ago I posted an article that described how building even expensive new housing, it has a downward pressure on rents for unaffordable units, like a game of musical chairs.
According to this article we should expect to see a boom of 99 units and below being built in New York City. Why is NYC disincentivizing more density instead of incentivizing it? pic.twitter.com/Vikrse7Wok— Jay Parsons (@jayparsons) September 9, 2025 https://buythebronx.com/485-x-is-good-for-the-bronx/
Well one bad and one good for New York City. Voters will be able to vote on a measure to take away some power from the city council and the NYC Mayor to block housing. Three of the five ballot proposals are on the line today - the council is pushing the BOE to knock them off. More in Playbook: https://t.co/ZVRxhlu622 pic.twitter.com/EqIhspzqlX— Jeff Coltin (@JCColtin) September 9, 2025 They’re saying our opps are cooked pic.twitter.com/zviprciPmi— Paul E Williams (@PEWilliams_) September 9, 2025
Shit like this is why zoning laws are stupid and should be set at state level not at municipal level. Look at the gap between Rhode Island saying the State needs more homeless shelters and those that are ok with them being built in their neighborhood. 93% of Rhode Island voters say housing costs are a problem in the State. While many support solutions like new apartments, middle housing, Affordable housing & homeless shelters in Rhode Island, support for those same solutions drops off dramatically "in their neighborhood." pic.twitter.com/gzkIHjMHKP— Jonathan Berk (@berkie1) September 15, 2025
One big difference between European cities (non North American cities) and USA cities is how fast we suburbinized, I imagine the automobile had a lot to do with this. This is an absolutely fascinating chart. Americans never 'urbanized' in large numbers; there was significant mixing, but at the population level we jumped straight from farmsteads to suburbs https://t.co/8Mc5Eu18js pic.twitter.com/oShKQTchqk— Dion (@2024dion) July 14, 2025
So in beautiful Chicago, if you want to build public housing you most fill out hours of paperwork to confirm your companies never invested in the slave trade, sounds like a noteworthy cause, but it adds cost to the price of public housing. But our Mayor says that no company has been denied a contract under this request. But don't worry, the mayor's office will tell you explicitly that it's a complete waste of time and money.https://t.co/hqx6NxsqcO pic.twitter.com/tty3YDNorW— Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp) September 23, 2025
NIMBYs everywhere. NYC Mayor Adams passed some regulations with the planning board to make it easier to build taller buildings (even that get tougher if you want to build over 99 units). The city council is trying to kill it because.......it could lead to more tall buildings, in New York City. The NYC Council had someone present to my local community board about the ballot proposals using talking points straight out of the NIMBY playbook. pic.twitter.com/kiCopJxIze— Michael Kaess (@WaluigiSoap) October 17, 2025
It takes over 700 days to approve new housing projects in New York City. That is crazy and needs to be fixed. Mayor Adams’ misleading ballot proposals 2 & 3 claim to “fast-track” housing but they don't fix the source of delays: 700+ days of agency reviews.Instead, they just remove our democratic vote and review, which is *65 days* max. That’s not a fast-track. pic.twitter.com/IB9XjLpxHT— New York City Council (@NYCCouncil) October 29, 2025
Baltimore Mayor doing good things. You can be progressive and YIMBY. "The mayor of Baltimore not only officially legalized 6-Story Single Stair apartment buildings, but also Eliminated Parking Requirements for new developments city-wide!" Today, I signed a package of bills to make housing in Baltimore more abundant and affordable.These bills will help folks buy a home and grow wealth, counter decades of disinvestment, and make sure both long-time and new residents feel the benefits of Baltimore's Renaissance. pic.twitter.com/pyISqQX5jt— Brandon M. Scott (@MayorBMScott) November 3, 2025
Pro housing propositions pass in New York City. 🚨ZOHRAN WINS AND ALL THE PRO-HOUSING BALLOT MEASURES PASS IN A LANDSLIDE🚨 pic.twitter.com/JdY3oDf2pe— sam (@sam_d_1995) November 5, 2025