From 1992 to 2006, the price of houses in the United States nearly tripled, primarily because increasingly stringent, local government land-use controls hampered the construction of urban housing. A full accounting of the U.S. mortgage crisis must recognize the role these restrictions played in distorting the market for subprime loans.

Edwin S. Mills is emeritus professor of real estate and finance in the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
EconomyLand UseLaw and LibertyProperty Rights, Land Use, and ZoningRegulation
Other Independent Review articles by Edwin S. Mills
Summer 2010 Letter to the Editor
Fall 2007 The Attrition of Urban Real-Property Rights