Market Urbanism

Liberalizing cities | From the bottom up

“Market Urbanism” refers to the synthesis of classical liberal economics and ethics (market), with an appreciation of the urban way of life and its benefits to society (urbanism). We advocate for the emergence of bottom up solutions to urban issues, as opposed to ones imposed from the top down.

YIMBYism: Its Not Just For Conservatives

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Last week, I posted about an attack on YIMBYs (activists who favor less zoning and more housing) that used the term "alt-right"; the authors of that blog post recently doubled down with a slightly more moderate op-ed that still tarred YIMBYs as  "aligned with conservative right-wing … [Read more...]

What makes Philadelphia so affordable?

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In 2005, Joseph Gyourko published an economic history of Philadelphia. He explored the economic and policy factors that contributed to its population and job loss during the twentieth century. Gyourko's outlook for Philadelphia was pessimistic. He argued that the city lacked the supply of skilled … [Read more...]

How Governments Outlaw Affordable Housing

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This post was originally published at mises.org and reposted under a creative commons license.It's no secret that in coastal cities — plus some interior cities like Denver — rents and home prices are up significantly since 2009. In many areas, prices are above what they were at the peak of the … [Read more...]

A Guide to Urban Development [Guia de Gestão Urbana]

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Caos Planejado, in conjunction with Editora BEI/ArqFuturo, recently published A Guide to Urban Development (Guia de Gestão Urbana) by Anthony Ling. The book offers best practices for urban design and although it was written for a Brazilian audience, many of its recommendations have universal … [Read more...]

Where The Permits Are

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Thanks to Stephen Smith, I recently ran across an interesting database: HUD data on building permits by municipality.   So I decided to find the number of permits per 1,000 for a wide variety of cities, focusing on (1) multifamily permits (because rising rent is a bigger problem in most places than … [Read more...]

The “Foreign Buyers” Argument

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A common argument against new housing supply is that in high-cost cities such as New York, demand from foreign buyers is so overwhelming as to make new supply irrelevant.  A recent study (available here) by two business school professors suggests otherwise.  The study does show more foreign … [Read more...]

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