A smart growth approach to housing aims to build more homes in the right places at the right price so that everyone can live in a community that supports them at every stage of life.

For too long, housing has sprawled out, become astronomically expensive, and offered little choice in the types of places we can call home. That’s no accident! Our rules, policies, and choices have created today’s housing crisis. We’re short 4.7 million homes, and across the country, housing is increasingly out of reach for too many people.

At Smart Growth America, we focus on the big picture because transportation, land use, and economic development don’t just happen on their own. A bad decision in one area can ripple into the others, creating problems that can last decades. When we get it right, smart growth brings it all together, allowing people to live in their communities at any stage of life, connect conveniently to jobs, schools, and daily needs, and build community alongside one another.

Smart growth is also key to unlocking more housing where people want to live. To that end, we’ve long worked in the housing space, helping towns and cities rethink zoning, reinvest in underused land, and support developers to create a range of housing options. That experience has shown us what works and what holds communities back. From supporting communities on the ground to advising policymakers and producing timely research, we are pushing for solutions that will actually deliver more housing, in the right places, at the right price.

Smart Growth America works to tackle the root causes of our housing challenges by focusing on three things: the types of homes available, where they’re built, and how much they cost. This approach enables more options—like duplexes, townhomes, and apartments—in walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods close to jobs, schools, and transit.

Our focus: Type, place, and price

By focusing on type, place, and price, we can:

• Eliminate outdated rules that make it nearly impossible to build anything but single-family homes on large lots. (Type)
• Build homes for people of different incomes, household sizes, and stages in life (Price)
• Help local leaders understand that building on the edges drives up costs and doesn’t meet demand for where people actually want to live. (Place)

Type

When many people think of home, an image of a white picket fence comes to mind, but many other types of housing would work better for more people throughout the different stages of their lives than just a single-family home. Zoning laws have made it hard to build anything else in most neighborhoods, limiting choices and who can live where. To solve the housing crisis, we need a broader mix of housing options that meet the needs of diverse households and strengthen local economies.

That means regulating for what we want: infill development, transit-oriented development, missing middle housing, revising single-family-only zoning, form-based codes, accessory dwelling units (ADUs), and building capacity for small-scale developers.

Place

Many small and mid-sized cities think they are built out or “full,” but a closer look reveals empty lots near downtowns, restrictive zoning that blocks duplexes or townhomes, and parking lots that sit empty most of the time. We need to build in the right places to support vibrant, close-knit communities. New homes should be located close to jobs, schools, doctors’ offices, parks, and the amenities that meet our daily needs. Building close to services also unlocks the opportunity for more density, which is vital as the U.S. faces its worst housing crisis in decades. Homes should also be in locations out of harm’s way from extreme weather events.

That means prioritizing infill development, redeveloping publicly owned land, reusing brownfields, and focusing on locations that are safe from climate hazards.

Price

High housing costs are partly about the number of homes we’re building, but also about the costs to build them. Construction market volatility and regulatory barriers contribute to increased housing costs. To build more homes in the right places, we need a wider range of financing tools for developers and predictability and speed in the process. And alongside new housing, we need strong anti-displacement strategies to help people and businesses stay in their communities.

The right tools can make a big difference in what is built. That means expanding tax credits, loan programs, and incentives to invest in well-connected locations, and leveraging innovative approaches like community land trusts.

How we lead this work

To build more homes in the right places at the right price, Smart Growth America works with national, state, and local leaders, advocates, and developers in large metro areas and small towns to build capacity, align resources, and reshape the rules to meet today’s housing needs and plan for a better future.

Our tactics include:

• Reforming outdated rules. Zoning reform is essential. Many zoning codes reflect outdated ideas that restrict housing types, limit supply, drive up costs, and reinforce patterns of racial and economic segregation. Modernizing these codes can unlock housing supply, provide more options, and make communities more inclusive and resilient.
• Rethinking land availability. Instead of building on farmland or green space, why not reuse underutilized land in existing communities? Parking lots, vacant parcels, formerly contaminated land, and other overlooked sites are already connected to where people want to be—and redeveloping them is a smarter fiscal choice for local governments.
• Identifying new and improving existing financing tools. Many types of housing don’t pencil out under current cost and funding structures, which can push new homes to the fringes. Through federal advocacy and real-world examples from developers, we’re advancing strategies that make more types of housing feasible in smart growth locations. This can include both proposing new financing approaches that could simplify complex capital stacks and better aligning existing federal programs with smart growth goals.

Closing

The housing crisis didn’t happen overnight, and it won’t be solved with a single policy. But its effects are felt in our daily lives, shaping where we grow, how we connect, and the communities we build together. Smart Growth America’s work is about expanding those choices for more people in more places.

Stay tuned as we dig deeper into our past work and our ideas on where to go next.