Where Is Housing Slow to Build: And Is It Getting Slower?

Leonardo D’Amico, Evan Soltas and Audrey Wang
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Leonardo D’Amico: University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Evan Soltas: Princeton University
Audrey Wang: Princeton University

Working Papers from Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies.

Abstract: We estimate the time durations of permitting and development for standardized new housing projects across 60 U.S. cities from 2000 to 2025. We report three new facts. First, the fastest cities complete projects in the time the slowest cities take to merely approve them. Second, across cities, permitting duration is positively associated with housing prices and negatively associated with production. The strength of these relationships rivals that of other measures of land-use regulation and suggests a high cost of delay. Third, permitting duration has risen steadily over time, whereas total project duration has fluctuated cyclically.

Keywords: USA; United States of America, building permit, housing development, time-to-build (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H73 R31 R38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hre, nep-ppm and nep-uep
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pri:cepsud:357

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