- Title
- Where Is Housing Slow to Build: And Is It Getting Slower?
- Author(s)
- Leonardo D’Amico Leonardo D’Amico (University of Chicago Booth School of Business )
- Evan Soltas Evan Soltas (Princeton University)
- Audrey Wang Audrey Wang (Princeton University)
- 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.
- Creation Date
- 2026-09
- Section URL ID
- Paper Number
- 357
- URL
- https://gceps.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/wp357_DAmico-Soltas-Wang_TimeToBuild.pdf
- File Function
- Jel
- H73, R31, R38
- Keyword(s)
- USA; United States of America, building permit, housing development, time-to-build
- Suppress
- false
- Series
- 3