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America Can’t Build Homes Anymore

By: Ryan Cooper

Cities stopped building not by accident but by design. Our housing system is constructed on scarcity, speculation, and private veto power.

(John Greim / LightRocket / Getty Images)

Walk through any major American city today, and you’ll see the same paradox: vacant office towers beside crowded apartments, underused lots amid soaring rents. It’s not that we lack space or need — it’s that we’ve forgotten how to build. Our once prolific construction machine has sputtered, leaving cities caught between scarcity and speculation. Inside and outside […]

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Small

Walk through any major American city today, and you’ll see the same paradox: vacant office towers beside crowded apartments, underused lots amid soaring rents. It’s not that we lack space or need — it’s that we’ve forgotten how to build. Our once prolific construction machine has sputtered, leaving cities caught between scarcity and speculation. Inside and outside […]

Medium

Walk through any major American city today, and you’ll see the same paradox: vacant office towers beside crowded apartments, underused lots amid soaring rents. It’s not that we lack space or need — it’s that we’ve forgotten how to build. Our once prolific construction machine has sputtered, leaving cities caught between scarcity and speculation. Inside and outside […]

Large

Walk through any major American city today, and you’ll see the same paradox: vacant office towers beside crowded apartments, underused lots amid soaring rents. It’s not that we lack space or need — it’s that we’ve forgotten how to build. Our once prolific construction machine has sputtered, leaving cities caught between scarcity and speculation. Inside and outside […]