Policymakers can’t make any significant headway on housing affordability unless they make it easier for companies to add more inventory more quickly, including the construction of more homes per acre of land. This isn’t some abstract theory or ideological claim. It is a relationship confirmed by copious empirical research. Basic laws of supply and demand drive the housing market as they do all others.
North Carolina has already take some sizable strides in the direction of housing abundance, by loosening constraints on construction and speeding up the permitting process. That’s one reason our growth engine continues to hum while other sputter. If we keep going, one effect will be steady increases in population density within our fastest-growing cities, suburbs, and exurbs.
Does that also mean a significant increase in transit usage? Longtime proponents for public transportation often make this prediction, and I question neither their good intentions nor the superficial plausibility of the claim. But it just doesn’t comport with practical experience…