There’s a way to make homes affordable again. And it’s already in front of us. But a lot of cities make it hard to do. Builders started about 943,000 single-family homes last year. What if there was the option for a second unit? A separate entrance and its own kitchen. A place for a parent, a grown kid, or a renter who helps cover the mortgage. It could add up to nearly a million homes a year. The city shouldn’t be able to say no. Op-ed from Eric Osth at CNU in the replies.

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For 70 years in most of America, you could own a half acre and still be legally barred from putting a small second home on it. Not because it was unsafe. Because the code said one house per lot . Utah just ended that. Since October 1, if your lot is over 11,000 square feet, a backyard home is a permitted use. No hearing, no neighbor veto, no conditional use permit. Orem spent last night rewriting its definitions to match. That’s what winning looks like. No program, no subsidy. A state just stopped cities from saying no. Every state could do this tomorrow.

A recession is necessary. Here's our case. Think of it as a hangover. As a country, we keep reaching the morning after, and instead of sobering up, we pour another drink. We did it in 2001, 2008, and 2020. Getting healthy means cutting spending instead of adding more. In housing, that means letting people build single-family homes, duplexes, triplexes, townhomes, and apartments over shops, without a planning commission, a zoning board, or a neighbor holding a veto. Homes get affordable when people are allowed to build them.