First, there are actual physical, geographical, social limits to development that go unrecognized, or increase the level of difficulty in adding more housing. Second, whether we like it or not, the American preference for development intensity has declined over the decades, leading us to view sprawled development as fully developed. Taken together, it’s clear that simply lifting restrictive zoning standards alone can’t resolve our nation’s housing affordability crisis. Together they created a national land development index that gives us a much better understanding of how much — or how little — land is available for development, down to the county level, throughout the U.S. Once those constraints are added to existing built-up areas, the amount of developable land in a given area changes dramatically.

Source: Forbes August 14, 2023 00:45 UTC