RBC Research

This page will host sponsored research by HUD and partners in the research community devoted to finding solutions for reducing the barriers that impede affordable housing development.

Policy & Practice: Pro-Housing Land Use and Zoning Reforms (April 2023)

This issue of Policy & Practice summarizes the impacts of restrictive land use policies and highlights reforms that state and local governments can adopt to increase the supply of housing.

Opportunities to Increase Housing Production and Preservation

HUD’s Pam Blumenthal and Regina Gray discuss opportunities to increase the nation’s housing supply in a new Trending article on PD&R Edge. Currently, the U.S. faces a housing deficit, worsened by excessive local regulations and land use restrictions among other factors. As a result, housing costs are on the rise in both the sales and rental markets. HUD provides a number of resources to communities that wish to pursue regulatory reform or examine land use policy.

New Housing in High-Productivity Metropolitan Areas: Encouraging Production

This report from HUD identifies strategies to increase housing production to better enable households of all income levels to access high-productivity areas. The report was written in response to requests in committee reports accompanying the FY 2019 and FY 2020 annual federal appropriations, that HUD identify metropolitan areas with high housing costs and low production and recommend best practices for localities and states.

HUD Report on Regulatory Barriers

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s report on eliminating regulatory barriers to affordable housing includes recommendations from the general public and federal, state and local decision makers on expanding the supply of available affordable housing through regulatory reform.

PD&R Study on Costs of Regulatory Barriers

PD&R will release an investigatory analysis of regulatory barriers that begins to quantify the impacts of land use requirements and standards on the cost of housing in high-cost communities.

PD&R's Cityscape on Regulatory Reform and Affordable Housing

PD&R's Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research features a symposium examining regulatory reform and affordable housing with six research articles on regulatory barriers.