Virginia cities gain new tools to increase affordable housing supply
Virginia law lets every locality adopt voluntary inclusionary zoning, density bonuses, ADUs and trust-fund fee options.
Affordability
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Virginia YIGBY bill puts Spanberger housing agenda on the line
Spanberger faces pressure from local governments and a small but vocal group of civic organizations to veto the bill, extending the fight after they failed to stop it in the state’s General Assembly.
Minimum residential lot size dispute heats up in a Texas county
A battle has brewed over residential lot sizes in Texas after Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law last year reducing them in the state’s biggest cities. Since the law didn’t apply statewide, Montgomery County, which abuts Houston, is trying again to increase its lot sizes after doing so last March. County planners say the increase […]
California steps up reform to join the single-stair bandwagon
California lawmakers have been at the forefront of zoning reforms to increase housing supply and affordability. New legislation filed Tuesday would put the state on the path to joining single-stair reform that other states and cities have already adopted. Assemblymember Alex Lee’s newly filed bill proposes increasing housing construction by reforming California’s building code to […]
A capital-light, local model could power this off-site builder’s plan to scale
Reframe Systems is scaling a distributed microfactory model for modular and panelized housing, targeting high-cost markets. The company expects 48 unit deliveries in 2026, with a goal of up to 200 units in 2027 as its first full-scale microfactory site comes online.
Trending: employer housing benefits narrow affordability gaps
A growing number of private sector employers have quietly begun offering workers a benefit that helps them live closer to the office at a price they can afford. As housing costs soar, it has been policymakers nationwide who’ve hogged the headlines, zeroing in on zoning reform and regulatory rollbacks as fixes for America’s housing affordability […]
NYC builds taller housing again, as state, city law reset the stage
New York City is increasing housing density, though much of the early progress stems from state law changes and rezonings that predate Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration. Those moves are now starting to show up in steel and concrete, even as Mamdani advances his own housing agenda. The clearest example is in Midtown South. City officials […]
Housing supply summit highlights the cost of complexity
I love Jerusalem Demsas’ “Housing Breaks People’s Brains” article in The Atlantic from November 2022. For me, it’s a trailhead for understanding why efforts and solutions aimed at the housing access and attainability crisis for so many Americans often short-circuit and fizzle before they can fix anything. Demsas’ unflinching reporting on “localism and shortage denialism” […]
California bills target condo deposits and defect liability
California lawmakers are weighing bills that would reduce regulatory barriers to revive condominium construction, which has dropped significantly from its peak in the years before the Great Recession. Assembly Bill 1406 would raise the state’s liquidated-damages limit on new condominium sales from 3% of the purchase price to 6%. Backers frame the bill as “condo […]
Immigration policy, economic uncertainty reshaping housing market
Builders are reporting sales impacts from policy shifts as consumers become increasingly skeptical of traditional “dream home” marketing.