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Zak Yudhishthu

@zyudhishthu.bsky.social
4K followers 1.2K following 1.9K posts

Sidewalk enthusiast and adopted Midwesterner (formerly Twin Cities, Chicago). Researching the economics of housing and cities. PhD student at UW-Madison. pencillingout.substack.com zakyudhishthu.github.io

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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I 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.
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Alright let’s see what all the hype is about
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I 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.com
What 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.
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I'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.com
Report: Minnesota’s home insurance rate rose more than any other state in first half of 2026 • Minnesota Reformer
Minnesota 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 ...
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Abundant 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."
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Interesting 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.com
Want 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.
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I'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
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Wow, 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.com
The Rise of the Tenemansion
With a low supply of townhouses in the West Village, wealthy buyers are turning rental apartment buildings into single-family homes.
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
To 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!
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
A bunch of perfect duplexes on the east side of Madison
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
I like when they try to sneak some historic facades, but with garages built in, next to some actually old homes
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
There’s this part of Minneapolis right by Lowry Hill with some really, really good looking old apartments
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
As 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.com
Notes on moving from policy advocacy to research
And a personal announcement
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Wow, 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.org
The 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.
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
I 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.org
A Room Without A View: New Building Goes Up Just Inches From Woman’s Window
Lucia 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.
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Two 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.com
New Housing Law Boosts Prospects for Factory-Built Homes
Supporters are cheering a new federal housing law that should make it easier and cheaper to build modular and manufactured homes.
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
In 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
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Spotted in Madison: one perfect Chicago-style two flat
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Learning 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!
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Anthony Edwards Minnesota propaganda… let’s go
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Been in Minneapolis a mere 15 minutes before getting my first ever fare check on Metro Transit
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Chicago 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.
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Reposted by Zak Yudhishthu
Michael Andersen @andersem.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Re-legalize Zak’s place
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
A 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
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
☹️
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Turns out, Chicago has its own Statue of Liberty
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Urban Land Rent 🇸🇴🚰 @urbanlandrent.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
California’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?
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Heard there were some new chairs at Buckingham Fountain. So you know I had to have that #FontanosAtTheFountain
An Italian deli sandwhich in front of Buckingham Fountain in Chicago
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
I 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
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Daniel Kay Hertz @danielkayhertz.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
By popular demand housing-developer-game.dhertz.workers.dev
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Wedge LIVE!™ @wedge.live · 10/06/2026
CPED looking at the 2050 plan as a "minor policy update." Bernard: "We want to focus more on implementation this time around."
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Regarding 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!
Tweet with a chart showing growth in house prices vs rents.  “housing prices going a lot above rent also puts some doubt on theory that there was no housing bubble and that all home price increases were just fundamentals.”
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Jonathan 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.
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Can’t believe they put a landlord special on the Schlitz logo
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
It'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.
Where to Build Affordable Housing?
Evaluating the Trade-offs of Location
Cody Cookt
Pearl Z. Li
Ariel J. Binder
June 5, 2026
Abstract

How does the location of affordable housing affect the distribution of assistance, tenant welfare, and segregation? Using administrative data, we first show that, despite fixed eligibility require-ments, developments in higher-opportunity neighborhoods disproportionately house tenants who are higher-income, less likely to have children, and far less likely to be Black or Hispanic. We then build a structural model in which households choose from both market-rate and affordable housing options, where the latter must be rationed. For existing developments, the targeting of assistance is driven mainly by which eligible households apply, with developer screening playing a smaller role. Simulating new developments across neighborhoods, we find that building in higher-opportunity locations raises aggregate tenant welfare and reduces segregation, but primarily benefits more moderate-need and white households at the expense of higher-need and minority households. Policy levers available after construction, such as lowering income limits, have more limited effects than the initial choice of location.
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
These flowering trees are amazing. Enjoy them while you can!
All pictures show trees with white flowers next to brick buildings on Chicago side streets
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
I 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
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
The Loop’s modernist government buildings have been patriot-ified
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
In 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...
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Picking up this book 75% because the cover art looks so good
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Protect Bridgeport Bicyclists @stevevance.net · 25/05/2026
BUILD 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...
3041 W Lyndale: new construction 5 flat next to a 2 flat. The 5 flat replaced a SFH and vacant lot.
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
You’d think they could figure out a better land use directly next to the red line
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
Life is flowing in Chicago
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Most 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.
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
It’s all just another day in paradise 😎
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
I’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
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Streets.mn @streets.mn · 19/05/2026
Minneapolis 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.
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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Continuing 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
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awjustus.bsky.social @awjustus.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Preapproved 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/
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Emily Hamilton @ebwhamilton.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Nicely-sliced data here on the types of households living in housing units with different bedroom counts in cities:
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