On The Housing Crisis/Real Estate Rules

Preferences that flourished out of a desire to separate Americans by race have evolved into a labyrinthine, exclusionary, and localized system that is at the core of the housing crisis—and very few people know about it.

Ideas

The Labyrinthine Rules That Created a Housing Crisis

The rules that govern land are the foundation of our lives.
By Jerusalem Demsas

Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty
September 2, 2024, 6 AM ET

This article has been adapted from the introduction of On the Housing Crisis: Land, Development, Democracy.

Consider how a home is built in America.

Long before the foundation is poured, the first step is to check the rule books. For the uninitiated, the laws that govern the land appear hopelessly technical and boring, prescribing dozens upon dozens of requirements for what can be built and where. Zoning ordinances and other land-use regulations or zoning ordinances reach far beyond the surface-level goal of preserving health and safety. Instead, they reveal a legal regime stealthily enforcing an archaic set of aesthetic and moral preferences.

. . . In reality, this system has resulted in stasis and sclerosis, empowering small numbers of unrepresentative people and organizations to determine what our towns and cities look like and preventing our democratically elected representatives from planning for the future. . .