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July 3, 2025
A Republican Bailout for Blue Cities? The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Trap Explained
The Republican Party’s much-touted “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” includes a $14 billion bailout for some of America’s worst-run cities, all thanks to the proposed expansion of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit…
June 30, 2025
America’s Six Million Home Shortage: Why California Is at the Epicenter
A growing body of research estimates that the US faces a severe housing shortage, with missing homes numbering between 3.8 million and 8.2 million. Using the midpoint—approximately six million missing homes—new AEI Housing…
June 26, 2025
Does Building Light-Touch Density Housing Lower Single-Family Home Values? Evidence from Seattle, WA and Charlotte, NC
Summary: Opponents of Light-touch Density (LTD) infill argue that it will lead to outright home price declines or, at the very least, slower home price appreciation (HPA). However, evidence from…
June 25, 2025
De-Skilling the Knowledge Economy
Key Points Despite the importance of mid-level workers to sectors like finance, business services, government, and health care, many of these workers are vulnerable to de-skilling, job loss, and forced…
June 23, 2025
Boston’s Backward Housing Policy: More Demand Will Only Exacerbate the Supply Crisis
Boston’s housing policies keep treating symptoms while ignoring the disease. Last month, the city proudly unveiled its Co-Purchasing Housing Pilot Program, offering $50,000 in zero-interest, deferred-payment loans to help lower-income households…
May 27, 2025
The Surprising Role of Large Developers in Solving the Housing Crunch
Against the odds—and conventional wisdom—the nation’s largest home builders have engineered a dramatic shift toward serving first-time homebuyers (FTBs). New data from the AEI Housing Center show that in 2024,…
May 7, 2025
Displacement by Design: How Bad Policy Made Housing Scarce, and How We Can Fix It
Musical chairs is one of the first games we play as children. The rules are simple: there are fewer chairs than players. When the music stops, someone ends up standing….
April 9, 2025
Trump’s Tariff Formula Is Still Wrong. Maybe That’s Why No One Will Admit They Created It.
…echoed by senior White House adviser Peter Navarro. But in remarks on Monday, Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Stephen Miran deflected responsibility, stating: “At the end of the day, the…
March 24, 2025
Tax Abatements: The Best-Kept Secret to Revitalizing Struggling Communities—Without Spending Taxpayer Money
A well-designed property tax abatement program can dramatically shift project economics by temporarily reducing tax burdens, making new housing development financially viable—without requiring government subsidies. Philadelphia’s 10-year tax abatement is…
March 18, 2025
Low-Rise Multifamily and Housing Supply: A Case Study of Seattle
Abstract We provide an in-depth case study of land use reforms in Seattle to highlight how redevelopment of aging single-family housing to townhomes can lead to a significant increase in…