Zoning Reforms and Housing Affordability: Evidence from the Minneapolis 2040 Plan

Helena Gu and David Munro

No 1629, GLO Discussion Paper Series from Global Labor Organization (GLO)

Abstract: In 2018, Minneapolis became the first U.S. city to eliminate single-family zoning through the Minneapolis 2040 Plan, with a central focus on improving housing affordability. Using a synthetic control approach, this paper finds that the reform reduced the growth of housing costs over the subsequent five years: home prices were 16-34% lower and rents 17.5-34% lower than a counterfactual Minneapolis. Placebo tests show these declines were the steepest among 83 donor cities (p=0.012). The effects are consistent across multiple robustness exercises and are not the result of new housing supply, but are likely due to weakened housing demand.

Keywords: zoning reform; land use regulation; house prices; rental prices; synthetic control (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: R30 R52 R58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur and nep-inv
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:glodps:1629

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