Neighborhoods are always changing; half of all renters move every two years. There’s a subtle perceptual bias that underlies many of the stories about gentrification and neighborhood change. The canonical journalistic account of gentrification focuses on the observable fact that…
Workers in low income households rely more on bikes for commuting, but the data show people of all income levels cycle to work There’s a lot of hand-wringing and harrumphing about the demographics of cycling. Some worry that bike lanes…
How neighborhood stability hinges on expectations: If people don’t believe things are going to get better, many will leave One of the most perplexing urban problems is neighborhood decline. Once healthy, middle-class or working class-places seem to gradually (and then…
More housing supply denialism–debunked It appears that we have been a bit premature in calling the housing supply debate over. Last week’s urbanist Internet was all a flutter with the latest claim of an academic study purporting to show that…
You won’t know that your inclusionary zoning program is wrecking the housing market until it’s too late to fix. How lags and game theory monkey wrench inclusionary zoning. One of the toughest problems in economics and economic forecasting is dealing…