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Rob Ripperda

@robripperda.com
31 followers 76 following 45 posts
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 10/02/2026
www.politico.com/live-updates...
politico.com
House approves housing bill, setting stage for tough Senate negotiations
After a bipartisan House vote, the housing deal faces a bicameral test.
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 10/02/2026
#YIMBY posts are a little light this morning on the house passage of H.R.6644 - Housing for the 21st Century Act
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Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
Half of the United States' population lives in these 144 counties. Explore: walkerke-county-popu...
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 03/02/2026
www.slowboring.com/p/trailer-re...
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 31/12/2025
Watched Father of the Bride with my daughter, it hit way differently than when I saw it as a kid.
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 30/12/2025
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/r...
nytimes.com
‘Can You Print a House?’: God, Robots and the U.S. Housing Crisis
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 18/12/2025
Why not wigs with sabres?
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Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias.bsky.social · 23/11/2025
"per square foot, affordable housing cost more 1.5 times as much to build in California as market-rate housing" www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | America’s Housing Crisis, in One Chart
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 06/11/2025
econofact.org/prospects-fo...
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 06/11/2025
The rise for first-time homebuyers really gets going around the pandemic which makes me think that everything that came with that event to push up home prices and then interest rates is doing a lot of work here. I'm in Austin, feels like continued price declines would change that number.
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 29/10/2025
And to add to the byzantine clarity on codes the state requires that new single-family homes be built to the 2015 IRC energy efficiency chapters with a modified compliance path: comptroller.texas.gov/programs/sec...
comptroller.texas.gov
Single-Family Construction
Effective Sept. 1, 2016, SECO adopted the energy provisions of the 2015 International Residential Code (IRC) as the state’s Building Energy Efficiency Performance Standards for residential constructio...
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 29/10/2025
It would be interesting to research in which of those jurisdictions the costs of new construction are lowest. Especially where the same labor pool could potentially be working in more than one city.
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Daily Stoic @daily-stoic.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.” ― Epictetus
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Jenny Schuetz @jennyschuetz.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
Tireless Mercatus team @salimfurth.bsky.social @ebwhamilton.bsky.social @charlescgardner.bsky.social just dropped 18 (!) strategies for state govts to increase housing supply. Love the ideas to limit "lawsuits of questionable merit" [ahem, Virginia]. www.mercatus.org/research/pol...
mercatus.org
Housing Reform in the States: A Menu of Options for 2026
Although state legislatures took unprecedented strides toward releasing the housing supply from its regulatory straitjacket in 2025, most pro-housing policies have not yet been adopted in most states....
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 27/09/2025
When in doubt there's always The Simpsons
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 26/09/2025
Apartment construction in Austin, TX.
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 25/09/2025
ZIRP
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 08/09/2025
Watch The Four Falls of Buffalo, then watch the Josh Allen children's hospital video, then watch Hard Knocks and root for the Bills.
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Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
Gotta re-legalize starter homes on small lots, encourage more experimentation with manufactured housing and other construction modes, restore fiscal discipline to bring down interest rates
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 02/08/2025
At what point should holders of inflation protected securities start to worry?
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 29/07/2025
Grew up in Austin, TX and I was a huge fan of the WGN Sandberg led Cubs and the TBS Justice led Braves.
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 22/07/2025
Investment property owners?
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 07/06/2025
Had fun watching my Longhorns win it this year. It's a great sport, just patch up those interference calls.
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 04/06/2025
I'd also like to thank @kylewalker.bsky.social whose tidycensus R package is my go to for exploring legislative district data.
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 04/06/2025
Y'all have a great ADU law that we sure would like to bring to Texas!
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 03/06/2025
That lack of volume hurts the scale benefit that manufactured home builders are able to achieve in lowering their costs.
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 03/06/2025
They are built to different codes which is one part of the cost difference, but here in Texas there also doesn't seem to be a lot of demand for them. Texas manufactured housing plants will build 1,900 homes in a month here, the highest I've seen residential mods hit was less than 400 for all of 2017
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Sara C. Bronin @sarabronin.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
National Zoning Atlas again informs advocacy - this time on manufactured housing reforms in Texas. Our Legislative Brief on Senate Bill 785 used NZA data on 824 jurisdictions, finding 44% would be affected. A link to the Brief (& other uses of NZA data by advocates) up at zoningatlas.org/advocacy!
zoningatlas.org
ADVOCACY — National Zoning Atlas
The National Zoning Atlas is empowering advocates by equipping them with the tools and information they need to create change in their communities.
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 03/06/2025
The only things I would add would be delivery and installation/anchoring of the home, but those are dealer setup costs that are included in the pricing data that is published by the US Census Bureau's Manufactured Housing Survey. (www.census.gov/programs-sur...)
census.gov
Manufactured Housing Survey (MHS)
The Manufactured Housing Survey (MHS) is conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and sponsored by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). MHS produces monthly regional estimates of the aver...
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 02/06/2025
"HUD Code housing is one of the country’s most important sources of housing affordable to low-income people without subsidy. Zoning codes are one factor limiting the use of manufactured housing" - @salimfurth.bsky.social @ebwhamilton.bsky.social www.mercatus.org/research/pol...
mercatus.org
Housing Reform in the States: A Menu of Options for 2025
To address the high cost of housing, lawmakers across the country can learn from the experience of states such as Colorado, Tennessee, Connecticut, Arizona, and Montana. Options for reform include rev...
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 02/06/2025
"Improving access to these modern mobile homes could give millions of people nationwide better access to a kind of unsubsidized and more affordable homeownership." - @pewresearch.org www.pew.org/en/research-...
pew.org
Additional Manufactured Housing Could Benefit Millions of U.S. Homebuyers
At a time when the U.S. housing shortage has caused home prices to soar, removing the barriers that prevent more manufactured housing from being built is vital. Improving access to these modern mobile...
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 02/06/2025
“Manufactured housing quietly provides deeply affordable starter homes at an average construction cost under $90,000, but is easily excluded by some communities.” @niskanencenter.bsky.social @aarmlovi.bsky.social www.niskanencenter.org/manufactured...
niskanencenter.org
Manufactured housing: the Ugly Duckling of affordable housing - Niskanen Center
Allowing manufactured homes to compete evenly with site-built is good for consumers and homeowners seeking housing solutions that fit their needs.
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 02/06/2025
“Some cities are also taking steps to integrate manufactured housing into their communities. New local initiatives, combined with the new federal regulations, will hopefully increase the availability of MH in urban and suburban areas.” trerc.tamu.edu/blog/recent-...
trerc.tamu.edu
Recent HUD Update Could Significantly Impact Manufactured Home Construction | Texas Real Estate Research Center
Last month, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced the most extensive update to the Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards in more than three decades.
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 02/06/2025
“…manufactured housing has remained an underexploited opportunity for providing millions of Americans with decent affordable housing.” www.planning.org/publications...
planning.org
Equitable Zoning for Manufactured Housing
This issue of Zoning Practice examines the persistent inequitable treatment of manufactured housing in many local zoning codes and offers considerations for code updates. It begins with brief summarie...
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 02/06/2025
“If manufactured homes were more widely accepted, they could play a role in chipping away at the 3.8 million-unit housing deficit, shrinking the affordability gap and promoting a more equitable housing landscape. A more inclusive approach could make that happen.” sf.freddiemac.com/docs/pdf/fac...
sf.freddiemac.com
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 02/06/2025
“Manufactured housing … offers significantly reduced construction costs ... to conventional site-built homes. ...the savings from these reduced costs could make homeownership ... attainable for low- and moderate-income households.” – @harvard-jchs.bsky.social www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/harness...
jchs.harvard.edu
Harnessing the Potential of Manufactured Housing to Expand Entry-Level Homeownership
Last year, James Shen, Chris Herbert and I co-authored a paper that showed that manufactured housing offers significantly reduced construction costs c
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 02/06/2025
First a huge thank you to @sarabronin.bsky.social whose research team at the @zoningatlas.bsky.social provided information on how SB 785 would impact all of the Texas cities in their amazing zoning project!
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 02/06/2025
TMHA supported this legislation from the start and distributed some excellent research that has been done on zoning reform for MH.
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 02/06/2025
What a great legislative session for attainable housing Texas just had! SB 785, which ensures most TX cities zone at least one district for by-right manufactured housing, is headed to the Governor's desk. 🧵
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Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Pretty concerned about ye olde budget deficit situation with inflation still a bit above target and interest rates rising
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The Upshot @upshot.nytimes.com · 20/05/2025
If Republicans pass their megabill, the record will arrive even sooner — putting America’s debt at more than 113 percent of the size of its entire economy. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/20/u...
nytimes.com
U.S. Debt Is on Pace to Set a Record. (The Data Goes Back to 1790.)
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M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
When vacancy rates rise, rents fall. It's the most robust finding in housing. If you want housing costs to fall, you have to build.
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 09/03/2025
Definitely not a fun Monday when you're getting them up and to elementary school an hour earlier.
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 24/02/2025
www.texastribune.org/2025/02/24/t...
texastribune.org
Companies are coming to Texas to develop a new generation of nuclear reactors
The state is aggressively pushing to deploy the next generation of atomic energy that would power big industrial operations.
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Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler.com · 21/02/2025
I know everyone is upset about single family homes being bought by investors and rented out, but I can’t get that mad about it because they give families who don’t have a $100,000+ down payment or cannot qualify for a mortgage the opportunity to live in single family neighborhoods with good schools.
if you somehow start building 1000s of homes without addressing these issues, those same homes will still get snapped up and freeze out first time buyers who (going back to wealth inequality) don't have the resources to outbid investment.
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YIMBYLAND @yimbyland.com · 15/02/2025
You don’t need therapy, you just need a neighborhood you can walk in.
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YIMBYLAND @yimbyland.com · 28/01/2025
America if we taxed land instead of improvements on the land
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Vitalik Buterin @vitalik.ca · 24/01/2025
On the risks of politician coins:
The risk of politician coins comes from the fact that they are such a perfect bribery vehicle. If a politician issues a coin, you do not even need to send *them* any coins to give them money. Instead, you just buy and hold the coin, and this increases the value of their holdings passively.

Furthermore, there is deniability: holding the coin is, in terms of financial effect, a linear combination of donating to the issuer and gambling. Hence you can have the intention of doing the former but when challenged claim that you are doing the latter.

You can even hold the coin privately, and show that you are holding it to whoever you need to show; you do not need any zero knowledge proofs, you just send a test transaction.

This is all risky to democracy, for reasons very similar to what I wrote in https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2021/08/16/voting3.html , https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2020/09/11/coordination.html and elsewhere. TLDR: the economic arguments for why markets are so great for "regular" goods and services do not extend to "markets for political influence".

I recommend politicians do not go down this path.
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Rob Ripperda @robripperda.com · 20/01/2025
I'd vote for that.
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Felix Salmon @felixsalmon.com · 19/01/2025
My story: www.axios.com/2025/01/19/d...
axios.com
Donald Trump is the newest crypto billionaire
His $TRUMP wealth overshadows Truth Social and his real estate holdings.
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