Michael Wiebe

Inclusionary zoning How to fund subsidized housing using surplus land value

IZ has to be calibrated so that the costs of providing subsidized homes are covered.
www.buildingabundance.ca/p/inclusiona...

No, it's gentrification (rich moving in) without displacement.

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New version of Kate Pennington's paper on housing in San Francisco, using variation in housing supply from building fires.

Also, Affordable groceries can't cost more than 20% of median income. Any grocery stores selling unaffordable food will be shut down.

New rule: cars have to be Affordable, so that monthly car payments are less than 10% of median income. Any luxury cars that are not sold at Affordable prices will include extra fees to fund Affordable cars produced by nonprofits.

Increase the stock of apartment-zoned land, reduce the price, which decreases the cost of building apartments.

michaelwiebe.com/blog/2025/07...

Household size is endogenous to housing costs.

If you use "this is not the right time" as a reason to ignore something, you have to revisit the issue when the timing is right. Otherwise, you're just trying to sweep it under the rug.

Not on pubpeer, but this started in 2021:
michaelwiebe.com/blog/2021/02...
michaelwiebe.com/blog/2022/04...
econjwatch.org/articles/can...

Is the timing right, now?

bsky.app/profile/davi...

Is the timing less weird now?

bsky.app/profile/davi...

bsky.app/profile/mich...

Now that this is sorted, let's see Cook offer a defence of Cook (2014).

bsky.app/profile/mich...

A growing city is a constant battle between status-quo-mongers and progress.

What is yellow here?

Filtering How the expensive new homes of today become the affordable homes of tomorrow

www.buildingabundance.ca/p/vacancy-ch...
www.buildingabundance.ca/p/filtering

If you conflate vacancy chains and filtering, you also mix up how long their effects take.

Filtering takes decades, since homes depreciate slowly. But vacancy chains take only one year (as measured in the Finland study).

Easy solution: grant them citizenship, so the housing *does* go to American citizens.

Not calibrated!

Can also achieve integration by vouchers, buying homes, etc.

It's not!

Inclusionary zoning How to fund subsidized housing using surplus land value

See also:
www.buildingabundance.ca/p/inclusiona...

Inclusionary zoning is justified on economic grounds as a form of value capture. But if value capture is not an accepted legal rationale in the US for requiring subsidized homes, then are there any grounds to justify IZ?

Inclusionary zoning How to fund subsidized housing using surplus land value

Wasn't calibrated!

www.buildingabundance.ca/p/inclusiona...

Single-family zoning causes gentrification.

Social insurance = redistribution?

When rich people move in, but zoning allows only detached houses, we just get nicer mansions while poor people move away.

If zoning allowed apartments, the housing stock could increase with population, so we get gentrification without displacement.

Single-family zoning causes gentrification.

Why do you think developers are uniquely responsible for promoting integration? If integration is a social good, shouldn't all of us be responsible for providing it?