housing policy consultant, attorney (barely), YIMBY, former LIHTC allocator, UNC-CH x3 alum & adjunct professor
Joined October 2012
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LIHTC qualified allocation plans (QAPs) control >$10B/year in affordable rental housing activity, yet despite their significance are not well understood. To help increase comprehension I’ve written a series of 10 blog posts explaining how QAPs work.
novoco.com/notes-from-novogr…
Mark Shelburne retweeted
What are QAPs and how do they establish priorities and criteria for allocating LIHTCs? Michael @Novogradac and @housingMark discuss this and more on this episode of the So You Want to Be a LIHTC Developer Series on #TaxCreditTuesday. novogradac.com/ai7
Mark Shelburne retweeted
Crazy! Turns out when you build a whole lot of market-rate homes it moderates prices! Data is in—YIMBYs were right and it's actually beneficial for everyone
apartmentlist.com/research/r… via @apartmentlist
Mark Shelburne retweeted
Why does higher supply reduce prices?
There is 1 house for sale and 4 buyers with maximum bids:
A: $600k, B: $500k, C: $400k, D: $300k
The market price is the highest losing bid, since this means the winner can outbid the losers.
With one house, A wins, and B,C,D lose. B's bid is $500k, so this is the price paid by A.
Now add a 2nd home. Here, both A and B win, so A doesn't need to outbid B. Instead, A and B only need to outbid C, so the price is $400k.
Similarly, with 3 houses, D's bid sets the price at $300k.
Lesson: higher supply means fewer buyers you need to outbid, and hence a lower price.
Last night I attended a profoundly disappointing housing event by a group of primarily well-off homeowners (called a CAC). The content was meant to convey concern for tenants, including having advocates speak. 1/5
Anything to distract from homeowners’ decades-long history of pushing away families who would occupy denser housing (and therefore more likely to be lower income).
Yet there they were, the two interests standing together as if they shared a common cause. 4/5
Mark Shelburne retweeted
New working paper from me, @sahnicboom, and Jacob Brown (offline): how do voters react to new homeless shelters and supportive housing built in their backyards?
We find voters living nearby new facilities *increase* their support for more spending on homeless services.
Mark Shelburne retweeted
New academic study: Inclusionary zoning costs renters $800k per "affordable" unit created. This is more than the per unit cost for the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program. While LIHTC which is largely funded by the rich via income taxes, IZOs are regressive & funded by renters.
Mark Shelburne retweeted
In a huge and bipartisan win for housing affordability in North Carolina, Governor Stein has signed into law House Bill 162, which ends mandatory off-street parking minimums for most new housing and commercial developments.
Parking minimums have shaped how North Carolina communities grow for decades. Urban, suburban and rural communities have been planned around making room for parked cars, not people. All that extra land not only drives up the cost of housing, but it reinforces car-centric urban design.
Now, communities will have more flexibility to build the homes and businesses people demand while reducing unnecessary costs and paving. Carolina Forward was proud to help champion this bipartisan reform.
Read more: dailytarheel.com/article/cit…
Great 🧵 I’ve found blunt clarity to be effective. Specifically for YIMBY:
• exclusionary zoning is founded in racism & treats apartment residents like a noxious use;
• allowing luxury condos reduces homelessness;
• single stair & parking minimums are based on vibes alone.
This quoted post is unavailable.
Mark Shelburne retweeted
Zoning in places like North Carolina's Triangle makes it illegal to build the most naturally affordable type of apartments. No wonder prices are rising. Let's fix it!
Mark Shelburne retweeted
Never forget: San Francisco city council promised they addressed rent inflation in fall 2024 by banning algorithmic pricing, saying "we're taking action locally to ensure our working renters can afford to live here."
Maybe it really is about supply and demand after all.
Mark Shelburne retweeted
And for affordability advocates, you are shooting your mission in the foot by amplifying this terribly misleading (even if well-intended) paper.
It's critical to embrace the far greater volume of research showing that more supply puts downward pressure on rents. So if we want to address affordability, let's make more housing available.
To use the slogan the report authors cutely tried to rebuke in their intro: Build, baby, build.
Mark Shelburne retweeted
Making New York City more affordable means building more homes — and updating outdated zoning that stands in their way.
Watch @NYCMayor talk with @jonstewart about unlocking the housing New Yorkers need: youtube.com/watch?v=nffK_ji5…
Mark Shelburne retweeted
We currently have a bunch of left NIMBYs in San Francisco taking the same side as a Santa Monica eviction lawyer as they call everyone else developer shills.
