Unwanted Housing: Localism and Politics of Housing Development

We examine pervasive opposition to building market-rate housing and relate it to localism: a perspective that grants moral authority to incumbent residents. We argue that localism has become prevalent in housing planning in the United States and that its seeming equality-allowing all communities the right to define themselves-conceals profound imbalances that favor the affluent. We use survey data from California to measure localism, using opposition to state land use preemption as a proxy. We find that localism is concentrated among white, affluent homeowners. This suggests that localist beliefs are less prevalent in the population than they are in planning practice.