Logan YIMBY

10/10/2026

"The main takeaway is straightforward: Wherever we had data, home prices went up—often by a lot—with especially large increases in parts of the West, the Mountain West, Texas and Florida, and more moderate but still positive growth in much of the Midwest and Southeast."

https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2026/feb/when-houses-outrun-paychecks-lost-decades-housing-affordability

10/08/2026

🏘🏡🏠👪

Converted garages and basements are becoming a bigger part of the national housing conversation over their potential to ease shortages of lower-cost rental units. Read more: bloom.bg/4hqXPU9

📷: Samara

10/06/2026

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10/05/2026

"I argue that three cultural practices (growth orientation, property rights norms, and positive-sum attitudes) act essentially as gates. If a place fails on any one of them, it is very likely to underbuild. Development will thus, over time, gravitate toward places that can pass all three of these cultural tests."

How does anything get built? What are the political precursors to development? Michael Munger has an interesting, and at times persuasive, argument that self-interest combines with particular institutional designs, such as public hearings, to create a prisoner’s dilemma where everyone knows that d...

09/27/2026

There's great commentary on why building more housing matters:

When it comes to what type of housing is the best to build, experts like Horowitz say any new housing — even if it’s on the higher end of the market — helps drive down costs for everyone.

“When there's not enough housing, it's low-income renters who end up paying the steepest price, because high-income renters move into middle-income neighborhoods and middle-income renters move into low-income neighborhoods,” he said. “Even if new housing is expensive, adding a lot of it ends up benefiting low-income renters the most.”

Despite explosive growth, the capital city of Texas saw its median rent decrease over the past five years. A Pew analysis says Utah could learn some important lessons from them.

09/19/2026

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"Economist Dejan Eskic notes 90% of renters can't afford homes, up from 60% a decade ago."

The Federal Reserve's latest interest rate hike rattled financial markets this week, but economists said the bigger concern for many Utahns is what higher borrowing costs mean for their ability to purchase a home.

According to Dejan Eskic, an economist with the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, the share of Utah renters who can no longer afford to buy a home has climbed dramatically over the past decade.

The affordability gap between renting and owning has also widened considerably. About 10 years ago, the monthly cost of renting and buying a home was nearly identical. Today, prospective homebuyers face a much steeper financial hurdle.

Read more: https://www.ksl.com/article/51625455

✍️: Debbie Worthen, KSL

09/19/2026

09/15/2026

Housing options paused, delayed, or "we just have a few more questions" is housing denied.

Just as a proposal at City Hall to allow smaller homes on residential lots sparked robust debate, Utah's capital has, in effect, put a two-week pause on public hearings.

09/15/2026

Building more housing, even luxury housing, can lower prices for everyone.

And the effects are likely largest for those at the low-end of housing quality:

"So a demand increase for high-end housing can propagate down the housing ladder and raise low-end rents.
And you'd expect a high-end supply increase to reverse this, which is exactly what we see in model simulations: prices fall more at the low end."

09/13/2026

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In some Texas towns, a manufactured home needed a permit. The house next door did not. 🏠

A state law that took effect September 1 ends that, requiring nearly every city with zoning to allow new HUD-code homes by right in at least one residential zone. 🔨 Manufactured housing is one of the cheapest paths to ownership. Extra permits add delay and cost, and some of it lands in prices for everyone. 💰

What rule in your town makes building harder than it should be?