Mayor Scott’s Spain trip highlights debate over value of international city travel
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott’s recent trip to Spain did not cost city taxpayers anything, but it has revived a familiar question in city politics: What does Baltimore actually get in return for sending its mayor to international policy gatherings?
Mayors Back Market-Rate Housing
A growing majority of U.S. mayors believe increasing market-rate housing supply is key to addressing affordability challenges, according to a new national survey.
The 2025 Menino Survey of Mayors, conducted by Boston University Initiative on Cities, found that 75% of respondents agree or strongly agree that expanding market-rate housing can help reduce costs. That marks a notable increase from 60% in 2021, reflecting shifting attitudes among local leaders as housing shortages persist.
At the same time, 80% of mayors reported that their cities lack sufficient multifamily housing, and 82% strongly support building apartments near transit hubs and business centers.
Burke housing market shifts as prices fall, inventory rises, rents climb
Burke County’s housing market slowed in March, with fewer new listings, fewer closings, and lower sale prices than a year earlier, and buyers gaining more choice and a little more negotiating room.
Sellers are still operating in a functioning market, but one that is less urgent than it was a year ago. Renters, meanwhile, continue to face upward cost pressure.
Another homeless encampment strategy
The Homeless Strategy Office announced a new “homeless encampment management plan” yesterday (emphasis mine): The City currently receives an average of 775 Austin 3-1-1 service requests each month related to encampments and hundreds more follow-up inquiries to these reports. While current operations allow for periodic encampment response, existing staffing levels do not support consistent follow-up or maintenance of previously cleared locations. As a result, many sites experience recurring activity, limiting the City’s ability to maintain progress and public confidence. The updated model is intended to address this structural limitation by increasing operational capacity and establishing a system that balances initial response with ongoing site management.
Most big-city mayors back more housing but question loosening local rules
While three-quarters of mayors say that building more homes would reduce prices, only about a third see their cities’ zoning and permitting rules as a major contributor to the housing shortfall, Boston University’s Initiative on Cities said in a report published this month. Elected leaders are even less convinced they need to reform local building codes or environmental standards to help ramp up construction.
Most mayors say market-rate housing development can boost housing affordability
A majority of U.S. mayors in a 2025 survey believe increasing market-rate housing development can reduce housing costs in their cities. The 75% of respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing with that assertion last year is an increase from 60% in 2021, according to the Menino Survey of Mayors initiated by Boston University’s Initiative on Cities.
Most mayors say market-rate housing development can boost housing affordability
Up to 80% of U.S. mayors say their city needs to develop more multifamily housing, a Boston University survey found. Support for zoning and permitting reform was more muted, however.
Why the U.S. housing supply shortage keeps deepening: underbuilding, rules, and rising build costs
A run of recent reporting lands on the same conclusion: the U.S. shortage is largely the result of long-run supply falling behind demand, with today’s affordability problems reflecting a backlog that can’t be cleared quickly. In other words, even if borrowing costs move around, the market can’t normalize without sustained additions to inventory.
What Mayors Have to Say About the Housing Shortage
A new report from the Menino Survey of Mayors, based at Boston University’s Initiative on Cities, finds that a large and growing majority of U.S. mayors say increasing housing supply would reduce housing costs. Yet mayors’ support varies (often by political party) across the range of policy tools commonly proposed to expand housing production, with inconsistent backing for many of them.
Build, baby, build
The YIMBYs have something to celebrate: Data from March provides new evidence that building housing reduces costs. Last month, the Pew Charitable Trusts published a detailed analysis of Austin’s housing boom and its impact on rents. Between 2015 and 2024, Austin added roughly 120,000 homes.