Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 02/10/2026I get that hail and storms might be worsening, but is something idiosyncratic causing such high home insurance costs in Minnesota — or causing Wisconsin to be so cheap? I'm shocked by the highly visible gap in insurance prices at the MN-WI border, since weather risk is presumably similar. 372
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 02/10/2026I haven't waded into Minneapolis's Waymo fight (not my battle) but I like @blindeke.bsky.social's take: Waymos need to be kept accountable and regulated, and we have to tackle preempt traffic issues. But effectively banning them doesn't get you far in the long-term. www.minnpost.com/cityscape/20...minnpost.comWhat should Minneapolis do about Waymo?A human in the driver’s seat of a driverless taxi won’t solve some of the bigger headaches brought on by Waymo’s arrival. 3101
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 02/10/2026I'm surprised that Minnesota's home insurance rates are the 6th-highest in the country. I didn't think it was that damage-prone of a place minnesotareformer.com/2026/09/29/r...minnesotareformer.comReport: Minnesota’s home insurance rate rose more than any other state in first half of 2026 • Minnesota ReformerMinnesota home insurance rates rose steeply in the first six months of 2026, up 13% from the end of 2025, according to a report from insurance comparison website Insurify. Minnesotans continue to see ... 8231
Reposted by Zak YudhishthuAbundant Housing Illinois @abundanthousingil.bsky.social · 29/09/2026"After a decade in the making, the Von Humboldt Elementary School redevelopment is a go." "Each unit is set to cost $922,000 to build — a staggering number that reflects the trend of escalating costs to build affordable housing." 2244
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Interesting article by @lydiadepillis on small towns offering incentives, including direct cash payments, for new residents to move there (focused on Kansas) Perhaps a good idea, but it also seems a bit zero-sum. IDK if it can work for every small town www.nytimes.com/2026/09/12/b...nytimes.comWant to Entice New Residents? Offer Cash, for a Start. (Gift Article)Relocation incentives have a mixed record of helping cities and towns stand out as people return to rural America. 120
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 16/09/2026I'm now a daily bus commuter in Madison (though usually not the BRT), and I have to say the bus system is quite good for a city of this size. I'm happy to have it! On the other hand, these pictures are a perfect encapsulation of how much easier it is to do BRT in a city with very little traffic 0180
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Wow, I'd heard of Chicago's three-flat deconversions and NYC's townhome flips from multiple units to one. But turning a 4-story tenement building into a mansion ($10m *before* renovating) is quite an extraordinary case of so much money chasing a scarce product. www.curbed.com/article/west...curbed.comThe Rise of the TenemansionWith a low supply of townhouses in the West Village, wealthy buyers are turning rental apartment buildings into single-family homes. 1201
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 07/09/2026To comply with a state policy eliminating parking mandates near transit — which covers 84% of Chicago's land — the current proposal is a bespoke overlay district that would have to be edited every time a transit route is changed. But they could simply end parking requirements! 1255
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 04/09/2026A bunch of perfect duplexes on the east side of Madison 061
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 23/08/2026I like when they try to sneak some historic facades, but with garages built in, next to some actually old homes 1100
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 23/08/2026There’s this part of Minneapolis right by Lowry Hill with some really, really good looking old apartments 0190
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 20/08/2026As I start my PhD in Real Estate and Urban Economics at UW-Madison, I blogged about gradually moving from the policy world to the research world. pencillingout.substack.com/p/notes-on-m...pencillingout.substack.comNotes on moving from policy advocacy to researchAnd a personal announcement 1131
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 19/08/2026Wow, I didn't know that Connecticut passed a bill to allow single-stair buildings up to six stories, but could not get the fire safety people on board and had to repeal the bill this year. rpa.org/news/lab/sin...rpa.orgThe Rise and Fall of Single-Stair Reform in Connecticut: Lessons for…In much of the world, multifamily residential buildings with one staircase are commonplace. Yet, with a few exceptions, such buildings are illegal above three stories in the United States. 160
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 18/08/2026I sympathize w/ this renter, but there's a structural imbalance: we will never get a Block Club article about the Chicagoans who benefit from these 26 new housing units. It's hard to tell a news-y story about the benefits, even when legit externalities exist... blockclubchicago.org/2026/08/18/a...blockclubchicago.orgA Room Without A View: New Building Goes Up Just Inches From Woman’s WindowLucia Whalen knew the lot next door to her Wicker Park rental would become a garage. But now, she can't even put an air conditioner in her window. 6738
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 18/08/2026Two positive national media stories about Baltimore this week — vacant homes in some areas are starting to become inhabited again, and murders are at an all-time low. It's interesting to see something so positive just 6 years after covid (gift links) www.wsj.com/economy/hous...wsj.comNew Housing Law Boosts Prospects for Factory-Built HomesSupporters are cheering a new federal housing law that should make it easier and cheaper to build modular and manufactured homes. 170
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 13/08/2026In Madison, here’s a weird, distorted version of courtyard apartments: the homes completely turn their backs on the street for a terrible pedestrian experience, while the strangely landscaped courtyard limits how much you can actually hang out in the there 361
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 13/08/2026Spotted in Madison: one perfect Chicago-style two flat 1254
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 13/08/2026Learning about building codes: before 2021 Chicago had few 5-story buildings, even where zoning allowed. But plenty of 4-story ones. Why? 5-story buildings previously had to use pricey Type I construction instead of cheaper Type III. When that changed, they more than doubled! 1233
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 05/08/2026Anthony Edwards Minnesota propaganda… let’s go 090
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 05/08/2026Been in Minneapolis a mere 15 minutes before getting my first ever fare check on Metro Transit 2260
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 04/08/2026Chicago is having some serious growth in rents and home values lately. Interestingly, however, bc it had really flat/negative prices after COVID, the cumulative price growth since Jan 2020 is still among the lowest in the Midwest. 1122
Reposted by Zak YudhishthuMichael Andersen @andersem.bsky.social · 04/08/2026Re-legalize Zak’s place 0368
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 04/08/2026A fond goodbye to my Avondale apartment, which breaks every part of its RS-3 zoning and could never be built today ❌ 12 units (2 unit max) ❌ 40 ft tall (30 ft max) ❌ 260 sq ft lot area/unit (2,500 min) ❌ 0 ft rear setback (35 ft min) And way above the 0.9 floor-area ratio cap 315823
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 11/07/2026Turns out, Chicago has its own Statue of Liberty 31077
Reposted by Zak YudhishthuUrban Land Rent 🇸🇴🚰 @urbanlandrent.bsky.social · 10/06/2026California’s elected officials are delusional in thinking they can force insurance companies to insure the uninsurable. You can pass any law you want, but if a house is worth $750k and climate models predict it will almost certainly burn within 20 years what rates would YOU charge them? 1145374
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 11/06/2026Heard there were some new chairs at Buckingham Fountain. So you know I had to have that #FontanosAtTheFountain 2130
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 11/06/2026I just kept on hitting more and more financing sources to close my gap, and I was like “wow am I really allowed to add all these?? This seems really complicated” Fortunately, a few years later I did successfully build my 100% affordable housing in Pilsen 0131
Reposted by Zak YudhishthuDaniel Kay Hertz @danielkayhertz.bsky.social · 10/06/2026By popular demand housing-developer-game.dhertz.workers.dev 312832
Reposted by Zak YudhishthuWedge LIVE!™ @wedge.live · 10/06/2026CPED looking at the 2050 plan as a "minor policy update." Bernard: "We want to focus more on implementation this time around." 1101
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 11/06/2026Regarding some discourse on the other app: Can we reconcile the ideas that 2008 was a housing bubble, vs. housing costs have been driven by long-run fundamentals? I think that we can! 140
Reposted by Zak YudhishthuJonathan Berk 🏠 @berkie1.bsky.social · 08/06/2026"Eliminating minimum parking requirements" does not mean "eliminating parking." After Minneapolis removed parking minimums, citywide parking ratios dropped from 1.0 to 0.73 spaces per unit. Walkable areas often built little parking, while others built closer to prior levels. 24314
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 08/06/2026Can’t believe they put a landlord special on the Schlitz logo 2491
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 07/06/2026It's common to emphasize affordable housing development in higher-opportunity neighborhoods. This paper raises a nuanced tradeoff: in better n'hoods, LIHTC applicants that are (relatively) better off crowd out other tenants. Households with the highest need benefit less. 271
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 05/06/2026These flowering trees are amazing. Enjoy them while you can! 4110
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 31/05/2026I don’t exactly know what this mural is saying about housing affordability. But I prefer to interpret it as a statement about how migration chains enable new housing to lower prices for homes across the price spectrum 3415
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 29/05/2026The Loop’s modernist government buildings have been patriot-ified 010
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 28/05/2026In the last few years, Chicago has built a lot of new housing, often near transit, with less than 0.5 parking spaces per unit. Made possible by multiple reforms over the past decade-plus elevatedchicago.org/wp-content/u... 1358
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 26/05/2026Picking up this book 75% because the cover art looks so good 040
Reposted by Zak YudhishthuProtect Bridgeport Bicyclists @stevevance.net · 25/05/2026BUILD plan fact of the day: lower income households benefit from new, market rate housing, even if they don’t live in that housing. New middle housing of the types that the plan would unban lowers housing costs for people who don’t live in that housing. 📑 pencillingout.substack.com/p/can-new-st... 22810
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 25/05/2026You’d think they could figure out a better land use directly next to the red line 0140
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 22/05/2026Most policymakers would be intrigued to hear about a costless way to make homeownership more affordable. That's minimum lot size reform! While Minneapolis is rightly seen as a zoning reform leader, it still has this low-hanging fruit. New @streets.mn post on the case for lot size reform. 1132
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 19/05/2026I’m actually starting to have a hard time reading this book. It’s insanely stressful, which is the last thing I want on the train ride home from work 020
Reposted by Zak YudhishthuStreets.mn @streets.mn · 19/05/2026Minneapolis needs to reduce minimum lot sizes: streets.mn/2026/05/19/minneapolis-n… How a simple, well-tested zoning change can make homeownership more affordable in the city. 3264
Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 19/05/2026Continuing my Chicago reads: this book is incredible and propulsive, and one of those books where you can’t look away from the disasters unfolding no matter how terrible they are 120
Reposted by Zak Yudhishthuawjustus.bsky.social @awjustus.bsky.social · 13/05/2026Preapproved plans are most important for small projects and basic dwellings, where soft costs can mean the difference between a project that pencils or a lot that remains underutilized. 2/ 182
Reposted by Zak YudhishthuEmily Hamilton @ebwhamilton.bsky.social · 14/05/2026Nicely-sliced data here on the types of households living in housing units with different bedroom counts in cities: 14017