Today it's official! Governor Abbott has signed SB840, Texas' residential-in-commercial zoning bill. It is not too dramatic to say that this bill will reshape the physical and economic geography of all major cities in Texas.
(Linked article for information: natlawreview.com/article/texa...)
(Paraphrased, bc audiobook. Enjoying this a lot, framing, historical context and analysis all great).
“Voice is not in & of itself a way to weigh tradeoffs. Progress involves ratifying tradeoffs that distribute burdens across communities, fair & unfair. Gov’t needs to be able to make decisions that impose costs & voice should not give any figure the ability to hijack process.”
Getting to see the purple line progress at New Carrollton is my work commute treat
(2) I'm optimistic about the future. There's a lot of folks in Annapolis & across the state who understand the consequences of maintaining a status quo where 1 in 3 MD families struggle with their monthly housing payment. Lots of opportunities for progress! (/ End)
Aaand finally, I was of course disappointed the Governor’s Housing for Jobs Act (HB 503) didn’t make it all the way through. I won't reflect too much here except to say that: (1) I'm very grateful to the tremendous effort from everyone involved to move a solution forward, and...
local gov’ts can *only* do rent stabilization w/ vacancy control, tenant organizers face retaliation, and ~5K holding over evictions are filed annually. The bill included practical exemptions & I’m not aware of any evidence that good cause *individually* ↓ housing construction.
I was also disappointed that good cause eviction (HB 709/SB 651) didn't advance AND to see a narrative that tenant protections broadly are in conflict with increasing housing supply. Good cause would have been an improvement over a status quo where...
Disappointing that MDOT’s HB80 didn’t cross the finish line. It’s hard to overstate how underutilized land around rail is in most of MD. More flexibility to build on state-owned land + limiting parking requirements around rail would have been a high-impact, low cost reform.
And, finally important expansions for financing for affordable housing projects were passed: SB327/HB390 grants local gov’ts more flexibility to execute PILOTs and HB 1085 extends property tax exemption for PHA owned properties.
Alright, now for the L's...
I'm proud of DHCD's bill (HB 59) to prevent folks from losing their homes over very small amounts of property tax debt passed unanimously. 12K owner-occupied homes went to tax sale last year. HB 59 helps by capping redemption rate at 10% + withholding if less than $1K is owed.
The ultimate impact of the bill will be filtered through the policy choices that local gov’ts make in adopting compliant ordinances, so that will be something to watch in the coming months. But: no matter what we’ll have more much needed homes in more neighborhoods statewide.
First: The wins! Del. Stewart and Sen. Washington's legislation to allow ADUs statewide in Maryland passed. 2 items in the final bill I especially like: local gov'ts have to do a study to justify addtl parking requirements + explicitly prevents HOAs from restricting ADUs.
Alright, a (long) 🧵with some reflections on the 2025 Maryland General Assembly session’s impact on housing stability. TLDR: Important progress, with the status quo also proving tenacious. (As always, these are personal views only).
And a UMBC poll released last week that found 63% of Maryland voters rank the cost and availability of housing as a high priority:
htv-prod-media.s3.amazonaws.com/files/umbc-p...
A Jan poll from the Washington Post that found housing was Maryland voters' top concern:
www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...
This validates other poll findings, including a February poll that found 42% of younger renters are considering leaving MD due to housing costs:
www.thebaltimorebanner.com/politics-pow...
The article is worth reading in full. It confirms that most Marylanders think there are too few housing options and believe that more housing would improve their communities:
ggwash.org/view/98610/2...
Maryland polls conducted this winter have consistently emphasized that voters want solutions to the housing crisis.
New polling today from @ggwash.org confirm support for solutions in @govwesmoore.bsky.social's Housing for Jobs Act - 79% agree gov't should stick to clear/objective criteria.
I'm not saying anything new here, but the mortgage interest rate deduction (1) is very regressive (benefits folks with the largest, most expensive homes the most); (2) has no actual demonstrated impact on homeownership for families; while (3) costing a LOT of $$.
t.co/raMeEEBnM9
It’s almost like agencies have to directly cite the congressional authority that allows them to promulgate regulations every time they do so 🙃
“Our high affordability requirements only penciled at 6 stories and that was our baseline.”
The people of Cambridge are lucky to have a city council that cares seriously about the impacts of housing costs - and are willing to act.
If only there were parking requirements to preserve the ultimate public good of people being able to park close to the mall!!
HUD is withdrawing its proposed AFFH rule, literally 2 years after putting it forward for public comment.
Rule would have required jurisdictions to develop equity plans to demonstrate fulfillment of the desegregatory policy of the 1968 Fair Housing Act.
Trump ppl have stated opposition to AFFH.
Proud to be part of the team that brought this competitive $ to Maryland to help address our state’s affordability crisis.
The full grant proposal submission is available online: dhcd.maryland.gov/Documents/Pr...
In very exciting news, Maryland was awarded $6.9M in funds from the HUD PRO Housing grant.
This money will go directly towards supporting local gov’ts across the state to reduce barriers to housing production. It will also fund TA & a statewide convening on best practices.
Housing markets should have options for essential workers, early career professionals, young families, *and* folks who can’t participate in the labor force.
Different interventions support different populations - and are often complementary, not in conflict.
It is honestly hard to overstate how unattainable homeownership has become in Maryland.
Even assuming a down payment of 20%, mortgage and property tax costs routinely exceed $3,000/month for a typical home. (Data Zillow ZHVI Aug 2024, 6.3% interest rate which is avg for MD)
Allowing more diverse housing types is a great solution to provide more homeownership opportunities for more income ranges.
In Montgomery County, sales prices vary significantly by home type (Redfin, Nov 2024):
- $791K single family home
- $500K townhouses
- $270K condos/coops
a graph of Spokane housing permitting over time, showing it spike in 2023/2024
Spokane passed a bunch of housing reforms recently—eliminating parking minimums, increasing height maximums, reducing lot minimums, allowing more missing middle, & expanding property tax exemptions for new multifamily projects—and now they're building record amounts of housing
