legitimate economic research supporting our position

---

Sophie Bandarkar1 Tahir de Noronha2 Maximilian Buchholz3

We argue (that the Abundance) framework rests on inconclusive and contested empirical ground.  First,

a thorough literature review of relevant research demonstrates the links between deregulation,

supply, and prices are much weaker and more complex than abundance advocates suggest. Sec-

ond, returning to descriptive evidence shows that the basic facts which motivate the abundance

argument are also contested. 

Study here: 

https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/baqf8_v1

Vanguard Staff 2025, commenting onHousing is a Human Right 2022

As the idea of “abundance” gains traction in housing policy circles — often invoked to justify building more housing of any kind — a 2022 article from Housing Is A Human Right offers a prescient reminder: abundance without affordability is a false promise.

Study here: 

https://davisvanguard.org/2025/05/americans-demand-housing-abundance-but-not-the-luxury-kind/

Gaetan compares the cost of proposed affordable housing projects with the current market value of apartments within the same area.

Somehow, when dealing with affordable or workforce housing, basic economics does not apply. Such projects are typically 2 or 3 times more expensive than fairly similar apartments in the same area. What gives?!

https://medium.com/@gaetanlion/unaffordable-affordable-housing-42b0fa50f594

Range-MacDonald has been writing about YIMBY origins, finances, motivations, and activities for years. Here is a trove of his writings for Housing is a Hunan Right. 

https://www.housingisahumanright.org/questions-about-yimbyism-read-housing-is-a-human-rights-top-notch-coverage-for-the-hard-facts/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

2024: The long-awaited report proposes sweeping exemptions and process changes—even though its own reasoning points in the opposite direction. Ca legislators continue to draw on it for legislation anyway.

https://legal-planet.org/2024/05/08/little-hoover-commission-releases-flawed-ceqa-report/

2019 “'Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing' is Disappearing

Preserving NOAH is for crucial lower- and middle-income households

By Maya Saraf

https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/documents/areas/ctr/ziman/AH-Policy-Brief_Saraf_08.27.19_MS.pdf

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/

Leila H. Moncharsh  

Across Berkeley, residents are seeing the same troubling pattern: beautiful buildings are demolished, lots are cleared, permits are granted … and then nothing happens. No construction. No new housing. Just fenced‑off dirt. It’s not your imagination, and it’s not a coincidence. This is a new development strategy shaped by state law, financial markets, and the rise of institutional investors — and it has very little to do with actually building the much‑promised housing.Here is what is most likely going on, and why preservationists and community members are increasingly alarmed.

https://berkeleyheritage.com/editorial/

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-

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"

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

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

https://48hills.org/2026/08/how-cities-are-going-to-lose-all-control-over-housing-development-soon/

https://48hills.org/2025/06/the-new-state-housing-numbers-the-yimbys-and-a-bit-of-econ-101/

population stable out to 2060M

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

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

Nico Calavita, professor emeritus in the Graduate Program in City Planning at SDSU is an independent researcher, writing here about the shortsightedness of encouraging development without funded infrastructure planning. 

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/02/17/opinion-city-will-regret-pushing-growth-while-neglecting-infrastructure/

Supply and Price Effects of Upzoning over 20 Years

https://doi.org/10.1080/08111146.2022.2124966