A popular view in the YIMBY community is that restrictive zoning and other policies that limit housing are pushed by homeowners who are benefitting from a housing shortage, in some kind of long-range Machiavellian conspiracy to alter macroeconomics in their favor. But this doesn't really hold up when you think about it.
Restrictions on housing expansion are generally very local, with projects being blocked on the municipal level, or on the neighborhood level. But actually, more housing in a neighborhood would tend to benefit homeowners there. As the neighborhood becomes denser, rents might go down, but land values will go up, since a given piece of land can now be used to build a more profitable apartment building.
What is really blocking housing is simply aesthetics, misguided economic and political beliefs, and fear of change.
Restrictions on housing expansion are generally very local, with projects being blocked on the municipal level, or on the neighborhood level. But actually, more housing in a neighborhood would tend to benefit homeowners there. As the neighborhood becomes denser, rents might go down, but land values will go up, since a given piece of land can now be used to build a more profitable apartment building.
What is really blocking housing is simply aesthetics, misguided economic and political beliefs, and fear of change.