The number of kids in cities is falling

Kids on the decline: According to Wall Street Journal reporters Rachel Louise Ensign and Paul Overberg, “the number of children under 18 living in big U.S. cities is down 6% in the past decade… compared with a 1% decline nationwide. The drop is especially stark among families with little kids: The number of children under 5 in big cities fell 15%, compared with a drop of 7% nationwide. Even cities that are gaining population are losing children.”

Housing for families: This is a clarion call: we need cheaper multifamily housing now. Family-oriented units (quadplexes, cottage courts, small apartment buildings) must be allowed in order for families with children to thrive in urban environments.

NC pulls ahead: By eliminating parking minimums across nearly the entire state, North Carolina has encouraged the walkable, family-friendly housing that every community needs. When housing developers don’t have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to build a parking lot in an urban or suburban center, they pass those savings on to families in the form of lower rents and home prices.

Closer to Home:

Gov Stein Signs Regulatory Reform in Law

What happened: On August 11th, Gov. Stein signed the Regulatory Reform Act of 2026 (SB 445) into law. This bill contains a few housing policy changes, namely that cities with over 50,000 residents must allow ADUs in residential areas (cities can still regulate size and design). We’ll discuss the bill’s other changes in detail in a later piece.

Bipartisan support: State Rep Jeff Zenger (R-Forsyth) said that the bill “removes burdensome regulations, protects property rights, expands affordable housing, and supports businesses, workers, and military families.” With bipartisan support in the General Assembly, this legislative win shows that expanding housing is a winning issue in NC.

What to Do Next:

Comment in Raleigh’s Engagement Portal to Support Exempt Plats

New Raleigh ordinance: Raleigh City staff has prepared a draft ordinance (TC-4-26) to update the City’s subdivision regulations and legalize exempt plats. Read that draft ordinance here!

Comment by Aug 25: Raleigh Planning Commission will be discussing this at their regular meeting Tuesday, 25 August at 9:00am.

This is exactly the moment when City Staff and Planning Commission need to hear your voice. Whether you personally would benefit from this ordinance passing, or you know a project that would. Even if you just want more mid-sized housing and recognize that this ordinance would enable that… let them know!

Submit a comment!

See You Next Week!

This is the CITYBUILDER Brief series brings short and shareable housing news straight to your inbox. Every week, the brief is available to our paid subscribers!

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Meeting schedules are starting to fill back up after the summer lull.

This week, we’re watching Raleigh’s proposed subdivision reforms, a pair of rezonings in Apex, and several other planning and development discussions across the Triangle. We’ve sorted through the agendas so you don’t have to.

📣 This Week’s Call to Action: APEX

Raleigh and Durham are both off this week, so our attention shifts to Apex. Link to Agenda.

There are two interesting rezoning cases in Apex this week, neither of which are expected to be controversial, but they highlight an important lesson: every municipality has different development rules.

🏡 Rezoning Case No. 26CZ04 – 2913 Evans Road

A 0.46-acre rezoning to allow an existing single-family lot to be subdivided into two single-family lots.

💡 Staff and the Planning Board both recommend approval.

💡 Conditions include extending curb and sidewalk, along with additional architectural standards.

🏘️ This is exactly the kind of small-scale infill that arguably shouldn’t require a rezoning at all. If you have a few minutes, consider emailing Town Council to support the request AND remind them that projects like this should be allowed by right rather than requiring a legislative rezoning.

📄Link to staff report. 📄 Link to Planning Board summary.

🎓 Rezoning Application No. 26CZ03 – Veridea SD Plan Amendment / Wake Tech Conlon Campus

This request would amend the approved Veridea Sustainable Development plan to accommodate the future Wake Technical Community College Conlon Western Wake Campus.

💡 A good example of how rezonings aren’t always about housing. They also help communities adapt to changing civic needs including placing campuses near mixed use housing and job centers.

📄 Link to staff report.

RALEIGH

📝 Opportunity to Comment: Raleigh Minor & Exempt Subdivision Regulations

Not every housing decision happens at a public hearing. Sometimes the biggest changes happen while the rules are still being written.

Raleigh is proposing updates to its subdivision regulations that would create a new minor subdivision process and implement state-authorized exempt subdivisions. Together, these changes could reduce review time and costs for small-scale infill, making it easier to divide lots and create more housing choices. Evan Bost wrote about this on CITYBUILDER earlier this year.

💡 Comments are being accepted through August 19, before the Planning Commission Text Change Committee meeting that day.

👉 Take a few minutes to review the proposal and submit comments in support of making small-scale infill simpler, faster, and more predictable.

💬 Read the draft ordinance and Submit Comments

​How to Show Up

You don’t need to be an expert to speak. If you care about housing, that’s enough. Arrive early to sign up, wear green or any pro-housing gear so supporters can find each other, and keep your comments simple. Even 60 seconds makes a difference.

“I support more housing choices in this area. We need more homes, and this is a good place to add them.”

Housing decisions are made meeting by meeting. If you want a region where more people can afford to live, this is where it happens.

Show up. Speak up. Bring someone with you.

Read more

Read How States & Localities Can Begin Implementing the ROAD to Housing Act

The ROAD ahead: The ROAD to Housing Act contains dozens of sections, most of which have implications for state and local governments. Researchers from Institute for Progress and Pew Research have created a broad set of recommendations for states and municipalities that want to take full advantage of these new federal policies.

Manufactured parity: One of the first steps that IFP & Pew list is certifying to HUD that state policies treat all manufactured homes the same as site-built homes. They write “This certification allows changes to the federal manufactured housing code to take effect in that state, lowering the cost per home by thousands of dollars.”

This is an important step for North Carolina. Currently, 10% of NC’s housing is manufactured/mobile homes (that’s twice the US average). Policymakers, planners, and government staff should think about how to fast-track these changes to allow more, better manufactured housing.

Closer to Home:

Raleigh is Considering Exempt Plats

What happened: Last month, Raleigh City staff prepared a draft ordinance (TC-4-26) to update the City’s subdivision regulations and legalize exempt plats. Read that draft ordinance here! This text change is scheduled for a public Planning Commission Text Change Committee meeting on August 19, 2026.

Why it matters: Modernizing Raleigh’s minor subdivision review process would bring the capital in line with most other NC municipalities, and reduce barriers to building small and starter homes. Currently, it takes 1-2 months to create a small lot subdivision in Durham, while it takes 1-2 years to create the same subdivision in Raleigh.

What to Do Next:

Write Into Engagement Portal to Support Exempt Plats

Comment before Aug 19: This is exactly the moment when Council and Planning need to hear your voice. Whether you personally would benefit from this ordinance passing, or you know a project that would. Even if you just want more mid-sized housing and recognize that this ordinance would enable that… let Council know!

Submit a comment

See You Next Week!

Our CITYBUILDER Brief series brings short and shareable housing news to paid subscribers every week.

Local governments make hundreds of decisions each year that determine where homes can be built, how neighborhoods grow, and whether it’s easier or harder to add housing. Most of them happen with little public attention.

Starting this week, Rezoning Watch will be a regular CITYBUILDER feature highlighting the meetings, rezonings, and land use decisions worth following across the Triangle. We’ll cut through the agenda packets, explain what matters, and point out the cases that deserve a closer look.

Many councils are returning from their summer break, making this a good time to launch. This week is relatively quiet, with one straightforward townhome rezoning in Durham and several communities easing back into their meeting schedules.

Durham

​Andrews Chapel Road Townhomes (Z2500032)​

📍 Tonight, August 3 at 7:00 PM
at Durham City Council Chambers, 101 City Hall Plaza

🏘️ Request to annex and rezone 4.5 acres within Durham’s Urban Growth Boundary to allow 28 townhomes

💡 Straightforward single-family to townhome rezoning in an established area. The site is already expected to develop. This allows more homes on the same land, expanding housing choices in an area already planned for growth.
💡​Inside the Urban Growth Boundary, this is the type of housing Durham needs to incrementally increase housing supply
⚠️ Expect the usual concerns about traffic and environmental impacts, despite the site already being designated for urban development

👉 Speak in person tonight by signing up outside Council Chambers before the meeting begins.

​How to Show Up

You don’t need to be an expert to speak. If you care about housing, that’s enough. Arrive early to sign up, wear green or any pro-housing gear so supporters can find each other, and keep your comments simple. Even 60 seconds makes a difference.

“I support more housing choices in this area. We need more homes, and this is a good place to add them.”

Housing decisions are made meeting by meeting. If you want a region where more people can afford to live, this is where it happens. Show up. Speak up. Bring someone with you.

Read more

Study Finds High-Income Housing Construction Creates ‘Moving Chains’ for Low-Income Renters

Multifamily math: Pew research has shed light on a study from 2023 that looked through the address history of 52,000 residents of new multifamily buildings in large cities. The paper by Dr. Evan Mast concludes that “constructing a new market-rate building that houses 100 people ultimately leads 45 to 70 people to move out of below-median income neighborhoods, with most of the effect occurring within three years.”

Moving chains: The pattern described above is known as a “moving chain”, and it illustrates the ripple effect that new high-income housing has across the market. It makes intuitive sense: when new luxury housing is built, the people who move in don’t appear out of thin air. They mostly come from cheaper apartments. Once they move, their old apartments are vacant, and they’re no longer competing with lower-income people for those cheaper units. Thus, lower-income people move in to their apartment.

Closer to Home:

Cary NIMBYs Kill Affordable Housing Opportunity

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Massachusetts Might End Single-Family Zoning

Duplexes everywhere: Yesterday, an amendment (#372) that would legalize duplexes across the state of Massachusetts was added to an economic development bill moving through the state senate. If passed into law, this provision would ensure that duplexes can be built anywhere single-family homes can, with few exceptions.

Massachusetts is missing housing: The Bay State is the second-worst state in the nation for homebuilding and affordability, according to rankings from Realtor.com. This likely-to-pass reform is a welcome shift towards pro-housing policies.

Closer to Home:

UNC To Shut Down On-Campus Housing for Graduate Students

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ROAD to Housing Act Becomes Law Without Trump’s Signature

Finally law: Last Friday at midnight, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act became law without President Trump’s signature. After nearly a year of negotiations and decades of inaction, a flood of new federal housing policies will start to reshape how America builds.

What this means: From bringing down the price of manufactured homes, to incentivizing communities to allow more housing, the ROAD Act has a lot worth celebrating. Here at CITYBUILDER, we’re focused on how North Carolina’s state and local governments can implement the reforms from this bill to unlock more housing. Stay tuned!

Closer to Home:

NC Senate Advances Regulatory Reform Bill

Read more

NC Ends Parking Minimums (almost) Statewide

Signed by Stein: On Monday, Governor Stein signed the Parking Lot Reform and Modernization Act (aka H162). When the bill takes effect on January 1st, 2027, North Carolina will be the first state in the nation to eliminate nearly all parking minimums statewide (parking minimums are still active in coastal counties), covering 90% of the state’s population.

First in the nation: While some cities had already removed parking mandates, and other states have limited them on housing projects or in transit areas, NC is leading the way on ending parking mandates across the board for housing and commercial projects alike. Allowing businesses and builders to choose how much parking they need has been shown to reduce costs, and it also reduces the environmental impact and flooding risks caused by parking lots.

Environmental Impact: It’s no secret that parking lots lead to major stormwater runoff, flooding, and pollution across our state. That’s why Catawba Riverkeepers was a key part of making this bill possible. Included in the bill is a provision that grants local municipalities the ability to offer incentives to increase stormwater protections when properties are redeveloped. This is a big win too.

More room for housing: To top it all off, NC’s parking reforms will make room for more homes in walkable areas. Cutting down on 30-minute commutes? Count us in! If you helped us advocate for this reform in any way, from calling your state senator to being a paid subscriber, we sincerely thank you.

Closer to Home:

Raleigh Considers Bringing Back Exempt Plats and Minor Subdivisions

Read more

China Builds 26-Story Apartment Building in 5 Days

Manufactured marvel: Five days. That’s how long it took 100 workers in China to construct a 26-story residential tower. But if that sounds crazy, wait for this part: The workers didn’t mix any concrete, weld a single beam, or saw a single board. As Fix the News reports:

The modules arrived on flatbeds, 12m x3m x2.4m each, the exact footprint of a 40-foot shipping container — pre-wired, pre-piped, pre-furnished, and locked together like the world’s tallest piece of IKEA furniture.

High-speed housing: By assembling 208 move-in ready apartments in five days, Broad Sustainable Building has proven just how rapidly manufactured housing can be deployed. With the ROAD to Housing Act set to finally unleash the full potential of manufactured housing in the United States, it’s time to see if American companies can rival their Chinese counterparts in constructing housing with speed on a large scale.

Closer to Home:

NC Parking Reform Heads to Gov. Stein

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Trump Refuses to Sign ROAD Act; It Could Become Law Anyways

Congress passes ROAD Act: On Tuesday, the House passed the ROAD to Housing Act 358-32, one day after the Senate passed it 85-5. This is huge. After almost a year of negotiations, Congress just passed the most substantial housing reform bill in decades.

Trump refuses to sign: On Wednesday, President Trump refused to sign the bill, vowing to stonewall the legislation until the SAVE America Act is passed. However, Punchbowl News is reporting that House Speaker Johnson will present the ROAD Act to Trump on Monday, kicking off a 10-day window for him to either sign or veto the bill. If he does neither, the bill becomes law anyways.

Read more

Federal ROAD to Housing Act Gets Even Better

Near the finish line: After ten long months of back-and-forth between the House and the Senate, the biggest federal housing bill in decades is close to becoming law. On Tuesday, the ROAD to Housing Act’s lead sponsors in the House and Senate released an encouraging joint statement on the bill’s final prospects. Sen. Scott said on CNBC that he expects the bill to pass in 2-3 weeks.

This bill is big: Pesky provisions that restricted build-to-rent housing were removed from the most recent version of the bill. Surprisingly, some great policies that the House stripped from the ROAD Act have made their way back in! Tahra Hoops from The Rebuild has a great summary of why this bill would be so transformative if signed into law.

Read more

Illinois Eliminates Parking Minimums Near Transit

Illinois’ People Over Parking Act took effect on June 1st, eliminating parking minimums around transit corridors and hubs across the state.

The impact: According to housing advocate Micheal McLean, an estimated 781 square miles of Illinois are now exempt from municipal parking minimums. This includes a majority of the city of Chicago.

Transit triumph: Specifically, the law exempts from parking minimums any development project within one-half mile of a public transportation hub or one-eighth mile of a public transportation corridor. Check out just how big that area is using this map from Chicago Cityscape.

Closer to Home:

NC Parking Reform Makes it Through Senate Ag Committee

Read more

Australian Housing Minister Issues Call To Build More Density

Danger down under: It’s not just America that faces a massive housing shortage, Australia is staring down a growing supply gap of hundreds of thousands of homes. During a speech at the National Press Club, the country’s Housing Minister, Clare O’Neil said:

“We need to build more dense cities in our country, full stop. […] For the first time, people are making the connection between the housing development down the street from them, and the capacity of their children to get into a home of their own. And that’s a connection that needs to be made.”

Anglosphere ailments: Housing shortages are currently hitting English-speaking countries much harder than other nations. As this graph from the Financial Times illustrates, The U.S., U.K., Australia, and more have experienced lower rates of housing growth than their European and East Asian peers.

Read more

House Passes Improved ROAD To Housing Act 396-13

Back again: Last week, the House voted to pass the improved ROAD to Housing Act, notably stripped of its previous anti-Build-to-Rent provisions that would have eliminated ~10% of the nation’s yearly housing stock increase (that’s about 70,000 homes).

Senate rematch: Now the amended bill heads to the Senate. Suggesting that further negotiations lie ahead, Senators Tim Scott and Elizabeth Warren said in a joint statement: “There’s still work to be done and we are committed to continuing to work with the White House and our colleagues in the House on a housing bill that can pass the Senate and get to the President’s desk.”

Closer to Home:

Raleigh Council Approves Placing Housing & Transit Bonds on Ballot

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New York Times Shows How Restricting Housing Drives Up Prices

What happened: On May 18th, the New York Times published an interactive map of housing costs relative to area median income across the United States. When paired with graphs like the one above, the trend is clear: cities that allow more housing to be built have lower housing costs than cities that limit home construction.

Consistent findings: This NYT analysis joins the mountain of evidence that increasing housing supply is the most important factor in lowering rents and home prices. Explore the map here.

Closer to Home:

Governor Stein Signs Executive Order on Housing Solutions

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Improved ROAD to Housing Act Set for Vote

A better bill: Yesterday, the House Financial Services Committee reached a bipartisan agreement to pass an upgraded version of the ‘21st Century ROAD to Housing Act’, which passed the Senate in March.

Senate shortfalls: The Senate’s version of the bill contained a provision that would effectively halt the construction of build-to-rent housing in America, eliminating at least 70,000 new housing units per year (~10% of total housing construction).

House improvements: The new House version of the bill doesn’t contain the provisions eliminating build-to-rent, which is a major win for housing advocates. The bill still contains a ban on “large institutional investors” (companies that own more than 350 single-family homes) buying additional single-family homes. However, this ban is not expected to significantly depress housing construction.

Read more

Portland Legalized Missing Middle, And It’s Getting Built

Even after legalizing missing middle housing, many jurisdictions see sluggish growth in ADUs, plexes, and townhomes. Oftentimes, governments allow middle housing on paper, but dozens of technical barriers remain, minimizing what can actually be built.

Portland is different: Portland, Oregon seems to have cracked the code, experiencing a major uptick in middle housing construction after it legalized up to four homes per lot citywide in 2020. From 2021-2022, more quadplexes were built than single-family homes.

How they did it: The key to Portland’s success is its reformed floor area ratio (FAR) policy. The more units a developer builds on a lot, the larger their FAR can be. In a typical R5 zone, a single-family home would have a maximum FAR of 0.5 to 1, but a quadplex on the same lot would have a maximum FAR of 0.9 to 1. This is a great example of a city taking proactive steps to make …

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Rhode Island Considers Landmark Single-Room Occupancy Legalization

Committee action: On March 31st, the Rhode Island General Assembly’s Housing Committee heard the ROOM Act, which would legalize single-room occupancy (SRO) housing in all residential and commercial areas statewide. The committee recommended the bill be held for further study.

What’s an SRO: Single-room occupancies are just as they sound: single rooms with access to shared kitchens and bathrooms, often available for rent on a daily or weekly basis. They constitute the cheapest form of housing available on the market, and are critical for preventing homelessness.

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Virginia Legalizes Manufactured Homes Everywhere

On March 31st, Governor Spanberger signed HB 655 (aka SB 346), legalizing manufactured homes in all residential areas zoned for single-family housing.

The effect: Any zone that permits single-family housing must now allow manufactured homes, with no additional restrictions. While existing zoning conditions (setbacks, buffers, lot sizes) still apply to manufactured homes, they cannot be different than conditions that apply to single-family homes.

Closer to Home:

Raleigh Housing Votes Are Fragmenting

Tuesday night’s City Council meeting made one thing clear. Housing approvals are happening, but they are not guaranteed. All of the housing cases passed, but several were close votes and came down to the specifics of each case.

Read more

Colorado Lets Nonprofits, Universities, and More Bypass Zoning

Last week, Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed the HOME Act into law, requiring most municipalities to allow housing development nonprofits, transit agencies, school districts, public housing authorities, and universities to build housing on their land.

What’s allowed: Starting in 2028, the aforementioned organizations can build housing on their property regardless of municipal zoning restrictions. Residential structures can be up to three stories or 45 feet in height by right, and municipalities cannot limit the number of units in a given development.

Room for improvement: Notably, religious institutions were not included in the list of qualifying organizations. Legalizing faith-based housing by right would give places of worship the ability to provide living spaces for vulnerable community members, unlocking a massive amount of affordable housing across …

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