A Short Summary of the US Housing Crisis and YIMBY Movement

A quick overview for a French audience. Did I miss anything?

Last week, I had the opportunity to write a guest post on the French urbanism site VV Guide by the organization Villes Vivantes. The original post is in French, so I thought it worthwhile to post the English version for my newsletter here. The post is a quick summary of the US housing affordability crisis, caused in large part by our historic housing shortage and zoning restrictions. I also summarize the rapidly growing US YIMBY movement, which is quickly becoming a powerful force in the housing space. This is likely very familiar content for many of you, but I’m interested to hear thoughts from seasoned advocates. If you had the opportunity to summarize US housing issues in 750 words or less, what would you chose to focus on? Is there anything glaring I missed here?

For those interested in French urbanism, I highly recommend following Villes Vivantes. They are an innovative organization that partners with small cities and homeowners in France to build accessory dwelling units on underused plots of land. They also convene thought leaders across France (and Europe) to exchange ideas about good urbanism. They’re planning to post more and more English language content on their VV Guide site. They also host an annual conference, called Organic Cities, which I’m hoping to attend and write about later this year.

A sample of US YIMBY organizations under the Welcoming Neighbors Network umbrella.

As America’s Housing Shortage Grows, the YIMBY Movement Becomes Stronger

The United States currently has a historic shortage of homes, with an estimated deficit of 4 to 5.5 million units. This shortage is having a devastating impact on housing affordability. The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies currently estimates that about 1/3 of all US households – and half of all renters -- are housing cost-burdened, defined as spending more than 30% of their income on housing costs. Meanwhile, the median home sales price has risen to $403,000 while the median age of first-time homebuyers is now a record 38 years old, compared to only 28 in 1981. While there are several factors that explain the current housing shortage, experts agree that restrictive zoning is one of the primary causes of this crisis.

In 1916, New York City and Berkeley, California adopted the first zoning codes in the United States, which limited building densities and uses. As author Nolan Gray outlines in his book Arbitrary Lines, these codes were largely motivated by local property owners who wanted to segregate their properties from business competition and immigrant groups. As zoning spread to other cities, it was soon challenged as unconstitutional violation of property rights under the US Constitution. But in 1926, the US Supreme Court ruled in the Euclid v. Ambler Realty case that zoning by local governments was permissible. As part of the decision, the discriminatory intent of zoning was made clear: in the ruling, Supreme Court Justice George Sutherland infamously characterized apartments as a “parasite” to local communities.

As a result of the Euclid decision, by the mid-20^th century, most American cities had adopted restrictive zoning codes. The result is that in most major American cities today, it is illegal to build anything other than a large single-family home on ¾ of the buildable land. In the wake of the rise of restrictive zoning codes, housing production has fallen from 8-14 units per thousand people in the mid-20^th century to roughly 4 units per thousand people today.

In response to this crisis, a growing movement in favor of lifting restrictive zoning has risen across the country. Known as the YIMBY (short for “yes in my backyard”) movement, it began in the mid-2010s in the San Francisco Bay area as a small group of volunteers who showed up to support housing projects at public meetings. Over the past 10 years, the movement has grown nationwide to hundreds of groups in nearly all metropolitan areas. Two major umbrella organizations – YIMBY Action and the Welcoming Neighbors Network – organize chapters of volunteers to advocate for zoning reform across the country. The movement includes members across the US political spectrum. While left-leaning supporters fight for zoning reform to reverse economic segregation and stop urban sprawl, right-leaning supporters see the YIMBY movement as a defense of individual property rights.

The movement has already generated some big wins in both red and blue states. Just last year, 65 housing supply bills passed in 20 states. Some major recent accomplishments at the local and state level include:

• In February 2025, the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts voted to allow up to 4 story-buildings citywide and to remove floor-to-area density restrictions.

• In 2024, Colorado passed a major bill (HB24-1313) requiring cities to change their zoning to accommodate more housing near transit.

• In December 2024, New York City passed its “City of Yes” initiative, the first major update to its zoning code since 1961. The changes will unlock an estimated 80,000 additional units over the next 15 years.

• In 2023, Republican-dominated Montana voted (S.B. 323) to allow duplexes in all cities with more than 5,000 people.

• Since 2016, California has passed a series of laws making it easier to build accessory dwelling units (ADUs) statewide. Today, over 20,000 ADUs are permitted each year, making up nearly a fifth of California’s annual housing production.

And the conversation has grown at the national level as well. There is now a bipartisan bill in the US Congress to encourage zoning reform. In the press, two new popular books, Abundance by journalists Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, and On the Housing Crisis, by The Atlantic writer Jerusalem Demsas, have both touted the need for zoning reform. The national consciousness is increasingly realizing the need to reform local zoning practices to allow for more housing and density in existing towns and cities. And that’s thanks in large part to a growing YIMBY movement that’s getting stronger every day.