Unlocking Housing Supply: Market-Driven Solutions for Growing Communities
On September 24th, the Civitas Institute hosted a half day conference, Unlocking Housing Supply: Market-Driven Solutions for Growing Communities.
Across the country, fast-growing communities are facing a common challenge—and a shared opportunity. As housing affordability becomes a defining issue for voters, families, and the future of local economies, the question isn’t whether to act, but how.
Opening Remarks
Steven Pedigo, LBJ School of Public Affairs
Keynote: What’s Holding Housing Back?
Jennifer Hernandez, Holland & Knight
Mayors in Action: Leading the Local Housing Response
Ryan Streeter, Civitas Institute (moderator)
Mayor Mattie Parker, City of Fort Worth
Mayor Kirk Watson, City of Austin
What the Data Tell Us: Housing Affordability by the Numbers
Joel Kotkin, Civitas Institute (moderator)
Wendell Cox, Demographia
Lance Gilliam, Concentric Community Advisors
Cullum Clark, Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative
Real-World Solutions: What Practitioners Are Doing Differently
Steven Pedigo, LBJ School of Public Affairs (moderator)
Joel Farkas, Fruition Communities
Laolu Davies, Five Woods Realty
Dianne Bangle, Real Estate Council of Austin
Dan French, Excelsior
What Comes Next: A Call to Action
Ryan Streeter, Civitas Institute
Economic Dynamism
The Price of Stagnation: Britain’s Retreat from Dynamism
We face a basic issue: we do not let cities or communities grow or die.
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London and the Architecture of Creative Growth
Preserving London's creative dynamism will require humility from policymakers and a commitment to keeping the city liveable.
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The New Frontier of Capital: What SpaceX’s IPO Tells Us About American Capital Markets
The ultimate trajectory of SpaceX remains uncertain, a reflection of the inherent nature of progress at the frontier rather than a flaw in the system that produced it.
Chicago’s “Disappearing Middle Class” Can Be Found in Its Proliferating Upper Middle-Class Neighborhoods
The middle class has not been hollowed out; rather, the overall decline stems from the net movement of families upward into the upper-middle class.
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Is Economics a Failure?
Rather than ending with “economics is broken,” Alexander Rosenberg’s deliberately provocative book 'Blunt Instrument' argues that “economics is useful for a different reason than economists often say.” That is a serious and worthwhile thesis.
Locke, Meet Claude
The concern is not regulation per se. It is a regulation that outruns its justification by arriving before the evidence, foreclosing the technology before its benefits are understood, and insulating the powerful from competition that would otherwise discipline them. That is the pattern worth resisting.
