legitimate economic research supporting our position

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McRae, Sheppard, and Roy

Abundance for who? 

Housing Access and Affordability

in High-Growth Metropolitan Areas

Study here: 

https://www.georgetownpoverty.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/AbundanceforWho.pdf?utm_campaign=sl-reality-check&tpcc=sl-reality-check&utm_source=trd-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Reality%20Check

Mondragon, Najjar, Wieland

The housing affordability crisis and income growth

Study here: 

https://www.frbsf.org/research-and-insights/publications/economic-letter/2026/02/housing-affordability-and-housing-demand/

Nico Block

Financialization, not demographics, caused the cost of housing to explode

Study here: 

https://www.policyalternatives.ca/news-research/the-numbers-dont-lie-the-housing-crisis-is-not-caused-by-a-supply-shortage/

https://mailchi.mp/4fc72005f543/victory-for-berkeley-preservation-in-court-of-appeal-9712597?e=e7b8adca0d

Buchholz, Kemeny, Randolph, Storper

Inequality, not regulation, drives America's housing affordability crisis

Study here: 

https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/95trz_v1

Read about it here: 

https://48hills.org/2026/01/new-study-shows-that-deregulation-is-not-the-answer-to-the-affordable-housing-crisis/?ref=newsletters.48hills.org

Michael Storper in Washington Post

Are YIMBYs winning the housing wars? Not so fast, these people say.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/02/01/yimby-housing-afforsdability/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-

https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/95trz_v1

Patrick Condon

The Hungry Dogs of Land Speculation 

Patrick Condon was a master planner for Vancouver in its initial densification. He is sounding the alarm that increasing density without affordability only further inflates urban land values to the benefit of speculators

https://www.planningreport.com/2021/02/18/patrick-condon-density-affordability-hungry-dogs-land-price-speculation

It could take a century for SF to YIMBY its way to housing affordability, new study says

https://sfstandard.com/2026/03/03/sf-housing-affordability-uc-berkeley-study-yimby/?utm_campaign=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sfs_newsletter&utm_term=03_03_26

National Bureau of Economic Research

http://www.nber.org/papers/w33470

Tony Dutzik

The problems of YIMBY abundance

The problems of "Abundance"

Patrick Condon and David Fields

The illusion of YIMBY abundance

https://utahvanguard.medium.com/the-illusion-of-yimby-abundance-0ac938f769fa

https://news.ku.edu/news/article/study-finds-us-does-not-have-housing-shortage-but-shortage-of-affordable-housing

population stable out to 2060M

https://dof.ca.gov/forecasting/demographics/projections/

California Exodus: Population projected to stay the same through 2060

We Should Weigh the Welfare Impacts of Luxury Housing by Income Level

Harms to Low Income Renters May Outweigh Benefits

https://open.substack.com/pub/harlo/p/who-benefits-from-building?r=1jzycv&utm_medium=ios

https://www.governing.com/community/zoning-changes-small-impact-on-housing-supply-affordability-study

Its main finding is that zoning reforms, introduced over the last decade and a half, which loosen restrictions on development, are associated with a very small increase in housing supply, but not with a reduction in housing costs or with greater availability of lower-cost units.

As satisfying watch as city leaders in the San Diego area directly tell the deputy director of HCD just how this all plays out: market realities, hazards, lack of buildable land, unrealistic numbers, and stacked deck counting methods have set them up to fail RHNA spectacularly. A ten minute watch will explain a lot, but you’ll probably be compelled to finish the whole 25 minute segment. 

Start at the 44 minute mark:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arKeg7IFk7w

https://www.frbsf.org/research-and-insights/publications/working-papers/2025/03/supply-constraints-do-not-explain-house-price-and-quantity-growth-across-u-s-cities

Patrick M. Condon sees the past repeating itself.; already the third most expensive city in the world, new plans to further densify are shortsighted. They are based on the disproven assumption that adding new luxury housing units will lead to affordability, which is not supported by evidence. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ3wuo01Cxo

Patrick M. Condon sees the past repeating itself.; already the third most expensive city in the world, new plans to further densify are shortsighted. They are based on the disproven assumption that adding new luxury housing units will lead to affordability, which is not supported by evidence. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ3wuo01Cxo

Supply and Price Effects of Upzoning over 20 Years

https://doi.org/10.1080/08111146.2022.2124966