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New Housing Study Negates YIMBY Narrative
By SOHO Staff
May/June 2025
A groundbreaking new study by two respected Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco economists and a UC Irvine Ph.D. candidate is attracting attention as it demonstrates the housing narrative pushed by YIMBY activists and developer-driven policy is unfounded.
Published in March 2025, the study concludes what preservationists, neighborhood advocates, and longtime residents have long known through lived experience: Housing prices are not driven by so-called development constraints, like zoning or historic preservation protections.
 Market rental rate is $7,300 per month. Courtesy Redfin |
Using four decades of data and rigorous economic tools, the authors—Federal Reserve economists John Mondragon and Johannes Wieland (who also works at UC San Diego), and Schuyler Louie—show that cities with relaxed development rules have seen housing prices rise just as steeply as cities with stronger planning, zoning, and environmental review. Even in cities that added tens of thousands of new units, such as Vancouver, British Columbia, housing remains unaffordable. In short, more market-rate housing isn’t the solution it’s widely claimed to be.
These international findings directly contradict the theory embraced by San Diego and Sacramento that zoning reform and deregulation will somehow solve the affordability crisis. Rather, the report clarifies that deregulating housing likely has no meaningful impact on affordability at all. Our stance is that deregulating housing to appease developers at the expense of historic neighborhoods is wrong headed and bad policy.
“We show that our findings imply that constrained housing supply is relatively unimportant in explaining differences in rising house prices among U.S. cities,” write the authors.
This study aligns with what SOHO has argued all along, that blaming preservation protections for the housing crisis is not only inaccurate, it is harmful. Historic neighborhoods are often among the last bastions of affordable housing and community stability, especially for long-term renters, seniors, and lower-income families.
Historic preservation is not the enemy of affordability. It is a critical tool for protecting community identity, cultural diversity, and architectural heritage, as well as for keeping our neighborhoods walkable and community oriented.
This important study shows that the true forces behind housing costs are structural: income inequality, speculation, and inadequate protections for renters and low-income families.
As the authors make clear, the problem isn’t our neighborhoods—it’s the economy’s ingrained structure. And until housing policymakers recognize this, many thousands of San Diegans will continue to be priced out—no matter how many high-end multi-unit buildings or one-bedroom, minimal-square-footage ADUs (apartments in disguise) go up.
SOHO remains committed to defending our historic neighborhoods from misguided and damaging policies. This revealing report offers all of us powerful data that strengthens our case and should give our city leaders and policymakers a chance to course correct now.
Let’s hope they listen.
Want to help protect San Diego’s historic neighborhoods from destructive developer-driven policies? Join or renew your SOHO membership today.
Source: “New study by Fed economists directly contradicts YIMBY narrative on housing prices,” by Tim Redmond, 48hills.org, March 27, 2025.
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