{"id":2669707,"date":"2026-09-25T06:30:01","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T10:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-big-bad-guy-behind-unaffordable-housing-almost-no-one-names-zoning-laws\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T06:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T10:35:08","slug":"the-big-bad-guy-behind-unaffordable-housing-almost-no-one-names-zoning-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-big-bad-guy-behind-unaffordable-housing-almost-no-one-names-zoning-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"The Big Bad Guy Behind Unaffordable Housing Almost No One Names: Zoning Laws"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-big-bad-guy-behind-unaffordable-housing-almost-no-one-names-zoning-laws%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2669707&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article discusses the 100th anniversary of the first zoning laws in the United States, highlighting how these laws originated from a 1926 Supreme Court decision that upheld Euclid\u2019s zoning ordinance as a police power meant to protect public safety and morals. Over time, these laws expanded into complex regulations governing property use, significantly increasing housing costs and contributing to a housing shortage projected to reach over 4 million homes by 2025. Studies link stricter land-use regulations to higher housing prices across many states, with urban containment policies further driving costs, reducing affordability, and increasing urban poverty. The article criticizes zoning for limiting middle-income housing development, raising the &#8220;zoning tax&#8221; that adds thousands of dollars to the cost of a new home, and restricting personal property rights. It advocates for ending a century of restrictive zoning laws,arguing they hinder the American Dream of homeownership and suggesting that legal challenges may soon question the constitutionality of such restrictions.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><br \/>\n<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\"><br \/>\n<?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><html><body><\/p>\n<section> \t\t\t\t<script>console.log(\"ad slot (AC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC2)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC3)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC4)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (REP_0)\")<\/script><\/p>\n<p>This year marks the 100th anniversary of the first zoning laws in the United States. It would be a good occasion on which to begin reversing the damage these laws have done over the decades.<\/p>\n<p>In 1926, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Ohio village of Euclid\u2019s zoning ordinance was constitutional as an extension of the state\u2019s police powers. That principle allows states to enact laws and regulations to enforce public order and govern for the collective welfare of the people.<\/p>\n<p>Regulation of the types of housing and commercial enterprises that people may choose to construct on their own property, however, is significantly different from the protection of public safety, health, and morals that the police powers traditionally covered. Unfortunately, the Progressive movement was in full stride in 1926, and judges became very inventive in expanding government power.<\/p>\n<p>After tentative steps by local governments early in the century, the Court\u2019s decision in Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co. unleashed state and local governments to manage people\u2019s use of their own property for whatever states considered to be the public good. Zoning subsequently expanded into an enormous thicket of laws and regulations specifying what people can and cannot build on their property.<\/p>\n<p>The consequences have been momentous. Zoning has raised the cost of housing significantly, especially by discouraging the construction of starter homes, leading to a housing supply gap of more than 4 million homes in 2025, according to Realtor.com.<\/p>\n<p>Zoning and other regulatory requirements are the major limitation on housing construction, a new paper from the American Enterprise Institute concluded. \u201cIn many markets policy-induced costs and local feasibility barriers act as the primary constraint on new housing production and are more binding than capital availability alone,\u201d the paper said.<\/p>\n<p>A study by the Cato Institute found that \u201crising land-use regulation is associated with rising real average home prices in 44 states and that rising zoning regulation is associated with rising real average home prices in 36 states. In general, the states that have increased the amount of rules and restrictions on land use the most have higher housing prices.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Land-use regulations directed toward \u201cfocusing density and redevelopment\u201d in urban areas, to prevent expansion of cities into surrounding regions \u2014 also known as \u201curban sprawl\u201d \u2014 represent perhaps the most ambitious form of zoning.<\/p>\n<p>The regulations drive up housing prices far beyond their costs in less-regulated places, greatly suppress economic development, and increase urban poverty, noted demographer Wendell Cox.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMore restrictive urban planning policies have been associated with undermined housing affordability for the middle class,\u201d Cox wrote. \u201cGiven the primacy of housing costs in household budgets, this also means that these restrictive policies, especially urban containment, have been associated with greater overall poverty. Some research even suggests that rigid regulation has taken a heavy toll on the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Such regulation \u201creduces the land available for development of middle-income housing in the forms most households prefer (ground-oriented, such as detached, semi-detached, or row houses)\u201d and makes it \u201call but impossible to profitably build tracts of housing affordable to middle-income households in many markets,\u201d Cox added.<\/p>\n<p>What economists call the \u201czoning tax\u201d now drives almost 24 percent of the final cost of the average new home in the United States, the Affordable Housing Initiative reported. Zoning costs each homeowner household a shocking $94,000 per unit, the survey by the National Association of Home Builders and the National Multifamily Housing Council found.<\/p>\n<p>This enormous cost arises from decisions by local governments and the voters who install them in office. \u201cIn Houston, where land-use regulation is minimal, new homes sell close to their construction cost,\u201d the AHI noted. \u201cIn Manhattan, San Francisco, or Boston, the same home might cost two, three, or five times more to buy than to build \u2014 not because of materials or labor, but because of what the law prohibits. Minimum lot sizes, height limits, parking minimums, setback requirements, design review boards, environmental impact assessments \u2014 each adds delay, cost, and uncertainty that builders must price into the final product.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Zoning now governs \u201call things large and small \u2014 from where you can live and work to what you can grow in your front yard,\u201d the Institute for Justice observed. The Euclid decision and others over the decades \u201csigned off on some of the government\u2019s worst impulses, acknowledging that local governments could regulate trivial things, like subjective aesthetics, and deeply intimate choices, like who we live with,\u201d the IJ noted.<\/p>\n<p>By limiting supply, local governments\u2019 regulation of property uses and their imposition of mandates for enhancements have been the central factor in the nation\u2019s housing affordability problem.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA family earning the nation\u2019s median income of $106,800 now needs 36% of that income to cover the mortgage payment on a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-feds-latest-rate-hike-five-ways-americans-may-feel-the-pain\/\" title=\"The Fed\u2019s latest rate hike: five ways Americans may feel the pain\">median-priced existing home<\/a> ($434,900) and 34% for a new home ($410,700),\u201d Realtor.com reported. The recommended proportion is 28 percent to 30 percent.<\/p>\n<p>The median age of a first-time homebuyer is now 40, up from the late 20s in the 1980s, when the use of the phrase \u201curban sprawl\u201d first rose dramatically and localities across the country responded by imposing the ever-tighter land-use limitations that have destroyed affordability.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, those who already own homes generally like being able to place preemptive restrictions on other peoples\u2019 property through government action. Having made a large investment in a house and land, it is natural for people to want to protect its value.<\/p>\n<p>The rules that governments impose in response to those desires have become extremely harmful, however, as the statistics indicate.<\/p>\n<p>With the damage having developed into a housing crisis, scholars on both the left and the right are starting to challenge this system. A 2024 paper by constitutional scholars Joshua Braver and Ilya Somin argued that \u201cexclusionary zoning \u2014 the imposition of restrictions on the amount and types of housing that property owners are allowed to build \u2014 is unconstitutional because it violates the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I agree, and I hope that they will succeed.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to being a judicial flimflam that has overruled people\u2019s property rights across the country, zoning and other intrusive land-use laws and regulations lock millions of people out of the American Dream of homeownership.<\/p>\n<p>A century of zoning is more than enough. Let\u2019s end it now.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><i><b>The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either d or endorsed by the owners of this website. If you are interested in contributing an Op-Ed to The Western Journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/submitop-ed\/\">here<\/a>.<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n<div style=\"background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #171717; display: flex;font-size: 16px;font-weight: 600;line-height: 1.5;margin: 24px 0;padding: 18px 20px 18px 30px;text-align: left;\">\n<div style=\"align-self: stretch;border-left: 3px solid #171717;flex-shrink: 0;padding-left: 20px;\"><\/div>\n<p><a style=\"text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/\">Choose The Western Journal as your preferred source on Google and never miss reporting that defends truth, protects freedom, and advances Western civilization<\/a><\/div>\n<p style=\"border: 1px solid #f5f5f5; padding: 16px;\">Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/advertise-us\/?wj_source=article\">Advertise Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position: relative;\">\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-submit-correction inner-content\">\n<div class=\"correction-form\">\n<form style=\"display: none;\">\n<div class=\"sc-name-field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* Name<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"name\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"sc--field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* <\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<label>* Message<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t<textarea name=\"message\" required><\/textarea> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"required-message\" style=\"display: none; padding-bottom: 15px;\">* All fields are required.<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"submit\" value=\"Submit\" onclick=\"event.preventDefault(); firefly_sc();\"> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"firefly-sc-confirm\" style=\"display: none;\">Success!<\/div>\n<\/p><\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> \t\t<script> \t\t\tfunction firefly_sc() { \t\t\t\tif( typeof window.captchaPublicKey == typeof undefined ){ \t\t\t\t\tconsole.error('window.captchaPublicKey is not defined'); \t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\tgrecaptcha.execute( window.captchaPublicKey, { action: 'submit_correction' } ).then( function( token ) { \t\t\t\t\tvar opts = { \t\t\t\t\t\taction:    'firefly_sc_submit', \t\t\t\t\t\tname:      document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"name\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\t:     document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tmessage:   document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"message\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tpost_id:   firefly_post_id, \t\t\t\t\t\tcap_token: token \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tvar inputs = [ 'name', '', 'message' ];  \t\t\t\t\tfor( var i = 0; i < inputs.length; i++ ) if( ! 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