Abundant Housing Michigan

10/01/2026

A huge thank you to our Coalition partner Spartan Housing Alliance for co-hosting a conversation with Kristian Grant at MSU last week!

We discussed the impact of Michigan’s housing shortage, particularly on young people and how the Housing Readiness Package can increase housing affordability and attainability!

With housing costs continuing to rise and homeownership increasingly becoming out of reach especially for young people, we can’t afford to wait for change!

Visit abundanthousingmi.org to learn more about the Housing Readiness Package and for ways to get involved in the fight for housing abundance!

09/28/2026

Thank you to AHM affiliate Spartan Housing Alliance for cohosting this event last week with State Representative Kristian Grant to discuss the impact that the Housing Readiness Package can have to make housing more affordable for students across the state.

State Rep. Kristian Grant, D-Grand Rapids, championed a slate of bills geared towards combating housing instability for Michigan State University students on Tuesday.

09/21/2026

Are you an MSU student? Join us and the Spartan Housing Alliance tomorrow night for a conversation with State Rep. Kristian Grant about the Housing Readiness Package and how it will make it easier for college students to afford a place to live in our state!

09/14/2026

Thanks to Americans for Tax Reform for this piece on how the Michigan Housing Readiness Package will help make it easier to build quality housing across our state!

Michigan lawmakers have an opportunity to advance a package of reforms that would make housing more affordable, expand property rights, and remove

08/25/2026

Our Advocacy Grant application is open for the 2026-2027 funding cycle!💥

AHM’s Advocacy Grants are intended to support the work of our coalition members making housing abundance a reality at the local level! Grants of up to $4,000 are available and can be used for things like community events, outreach, trainings, etc.

🗓️The deadline to apply is September 7th, 2026
❓Got questions? Join our virtual office hours on Friday August 28th 5-6pm or Tuesday September 2nd 12-1pm.

Office hours and the application, including eligibility requirements are linked in our bio!

Reach out to our Lead Organizer, Kieyana at [email protected] with any questions or how to become a coalition member!

08/11/2026

Is private equity and big business to blame for the housing shortage? It may be well-meaning, but it's also utterly unhelpful to paint the target on them.

Quoting economist Jay Parsons: Is rental housing -- apartments and single-family rentals -- the most fragmented major industry in the United States? When you look at data, you find that even the biggest players are rounding errors in terms of market share. Check out these stats:

1) The largest SFR owner, Progress Residential, owns 0.57% of the nation's single-family rental homes.

2) The largest known* apartment owner, Greystar, owns 0.47% of the nation's apartment units.

3) Combined, the top 50 SFR players own 3.67% of the market, according to an analysis of data from John Burns Research & Consulting. That means smaller players control 96.33% of the market.

4) Combined, the top 50 apartment players own 10.58% of the market, according to an analysis of data from the National Multifamily Housing Council. That means smaller players control 89.42% of the market.

Honest question: In what other industry do the largest players control such a tiny share of the market?

Truth is: Even the biggest rental housing owners are just not that big.

And let's be honest. In such an incredibly fragmented industry, it's massively harder for any one company -- with less than 1% market share -- to move the market in any meaningful way.

So when we talk about "behemoths" and "giants" in rental housing, we need to be careful not to mislead policymakers and the public. It might be helpful to include their market share in any such references. Accuracy and context do matter, right?

*Footnote: Apartment ownership rankings are based on NMHC data. A few notable owners do not report their data on units owned to NMHC; however, even if included, none would likely top 1% market share and the overall story/trend would be similar.

Can anyone think of another major U.S. industry where the largest players control such a tiny share of the market? I'm curious what else might be as fragmented and decentralized as apartments and SFR.

JOIN THE FIGHT TO LEGALIZE HOUSING: Abundant Housing Michigan and abundanthousingmi.org

08/07/2026

Columbus is beating Ann Arbor in housing. In 15 years, Columbus added about 370,000 people, growing about 1.2% annually. Ann Arbor has only grown by 30,000 people at around 0.6% annually. The reason? It is practically illegal to build more housing here in Michigan -- but we can change that!

A few bills in the legislature are gaining serious ground and can pave the way for Michigan's resurgence statewide:

- Stop requiring new homes to also have to build expensive parking lots.
- Streamline the housing permitting process.
- Stop requiring homes to have to be on built on massive lots (some communities currently require ACRES of land for a single house).
- and much more! Follow Abundant Housing Michigan to stay up to date on the fight for more housing!

SOURCE: Macrotrends

08/06/2026

Density Pays for Itself (Sprawl Starves Our Infrastructure Budgets)

Pew Charitable Trusts The Pew Charitable Trusts reaffirmed this in their own research, finding that upfront infrastructure costs on the urban fringe are on average one-third more expensive than when you build it densely, close to jobs, stores and transit ($63,005 per sprawl housing unit vs $41,720 per infill housing unit).

That difference is even more drastic for infrastructure maintenance costs where the urban fringe actually costs double what it costs close to jobs, stores and transit ($620 per sprawl unit vs $309 per infill unit).

Compact development is not only more affordable, and a more efficient use of our tax-dollars, but it also generates the precise surplus tax revenue cities need to maintain and upgrade their aging pipes and roads. Far from threatening our infrastructure, gentle density is the financial engine that saves it.

This is why we need to change the government restrictions on housing within our communities. We need to legalize infill because it's the most affordable form of housing. That's a major focus of the Michigan Housing Readiness bill package (HB 5529-5532 & 5581-5585). IT'S TIME TO LEGALIZE HOUSING AND BUILD AGAIN!

08/03/2026

After decades of explosive growth, Austin, Texas, in the 2010s was a victim of its own success. Lured by high-tech jobs and the city’s hip reputation, too many people were competing for too few homes. From 2010 to 2019, rents in Austin increased nearly 93%—more than in any other major American city. And home sale prices increased 82%, more than in any other metro area in Texas.

But starting in 2015, Austin instituted an array of policy reforms aimed at encouraging the development of new housing, especially rentals. The city changed zoning regulations to allow construction of large apartment buildings, particularly near jobs and transit. In 2018, voters approved a $250 million bond measure to build and repair affordable housing. Permitting processes were reformed to speed development and reduce costs.

The efforts worked. From 2015 to 2024, Austin added 120,000 units to its housing stock—an increase of 30%, more than three times the overall rate of growth in the United States (9%).

Rents fell. In December 2021, Austin’s median rent was $1,546, near its highest level ever and 15% higher than the U.S. median ($1,346). By January 2026, Austin’s median rent had fallen to $1,296, 4% lower than that of the U.S. overall ($1,353). This decline occurred even though the city population grew by 18,000 residents from 2022 to 2024. In apartment buildings with 50 or more units, rents fell 7% from 2023 to 2024 alone—the steepest decline recorded in any large metropolitan area. Rents declined about 11% in older non-luxury buildings that cater to lower-income renters, known as Class C buildings.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/austins-surge-new-housing-construction-drove-down-rents-alex-horowitz-wvhyf/?trackingId=ZfaU8ytPvfpHkM498YYnIw%3D%3D

08/03/2026

We were thrilled last week to welcome Nolan Gray of the Metropolitan Abundance Project to Grand Rapids and Plymouth to talk about how critical it is that we pass housing reforms embodied in the Michigan Housing Readiness Package. Thank you to our affiliates YIMBY Plymouth and Strong Towns Grand Rapids for cohosting these events with us!

Michigan’s housing shortage isn’t an economic inevitability — it’s a policy choice, argues Nolan Gray, a leading voice in the national housing reform movement.