Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
Streetsblog.net

What the Rest of the Country Can Learn from Houston’s Damn-Low Rents

10:58 AM EDT on March 19, 2012

Matt Yglesias's new book, "The Rent is Too Damn High" has been getting a lot of buzz on the Streetsblog Network recently. It seems the problem Yglesias describes -- zoning restrictions that make new urban housing development onerous or near impossible -- exists in every city, much to the frustration of those seeking affordable rents, not to mention those who favor walkable urban neighborhoods.

But if there's one urban place where new housing can be built freely, one city we might look to as a model, that place is -- surprise -- Houston, says Chris Bradford at the Austin Contrarian. While it might be known for sprawl, Houston's relative lack of land-use regulations actually makes it a good place in terms of facilitating infill development, Bradford says:

Demand for housing has been rising in the Montrose/River Oaks area in Houston, especially from renters. Rents rose there at a 9.1% annual rate in January.

The difference between Houston and a lot of other cities is that it is still easy to add housing in Houston's nice, central city neighborhoods (unless your project has "Ashby" in the title). There are currently 15 apartment projects with 4,300 units under construction in the Montrose/River Oaks area. That's not "announced" units; that's 4,300 units under construction. For point of reference, only 3,089 building permits were issued for housing units of any type in the entire San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metropolitan area in 2011.

Houston has a lot of needless land-use controls, including excessive minimum-space requirements and parking minimums, but there really aren't many other places in the country where there is both strong demand for infill development and a regulatory environment that freely allows it.

Elsewhere on the Network today: Transit Miami shares the grim details of an especially bloody weekend on the city's streets (and even sometimes near the roads). Second Avenue Sagas uses street shots in New York City's DUMBO neighborhood to illustrate how traffic problems are caused by private cars and delivery vehicles -- not buses, as some residents claim. And This Big City looks at the failure-fraught history of the monorail.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Wednesday’s Headlines at a Discount

We talk a lot about how parking minimums drive up housing costs, but so do overly wide roads. Why not take away a lane or two and let people build on the land?

October 4, 2023

Study: Remote Work Isn’t Always A Cure for America’s Addiction to Driving

A lot of Americans traded long commutes for short errands during the pandemic — but whether that swap resulted in more or less driving is a consequence of policy choices.

October 4, 2023

Tuesday’s Headlines Are Trending Down

An estimated 19,515 people died in car crashes during the first half of 2023, which is down 3.3 percent but still 19,515 too many.

October 3, 2023

What Do ‘Livable’ Streets Look Like in an Era of Driverless Cars?

Does a world of autonomous cars really have to make our streets less human?

October 3, 2023
See all posts