You’ve heard of NIMBYs: the stubborn homeowners typically of large, overcrowded cities, who dismiss the idea of new affordable housing developments. "Not in my backyard,” they say, citing fear of an architectural eyesore or extra traffic.
NIMBYism can put a damper on the work that needs to be done to combat the housing crisis across the U.S. The shortfall of new housing units in the U.S. ranges from 3 million to 6 million units, Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist with real estate listing service Bright MLS, previously told Fortune. That lack of new construction drives up rent and home prices, and makes it difficult for people to find affordable housing.
“The country desperately needs more housing inventory to combat the affordability challenge and greater housing crisis,” Austin Allison, co-founder and CEO of home co-ownership platform Pacaso, tells Fortune. “We're hopeful that the future will bring increased policy adoption to boost density, such as more cities allowing solutions like accessory dwelling units, and zoning reform.”
The good news is while NIMBYism has stymied new construction in some cities, there are also YIMBY towns where homeowners and government officials alike champion the idea of new construction—saying “yes, in my backyard.” The YIMBY movement is largely classified by the acceptance of accessory dwelling units, rezoning for more housing capacity, and allowing “missing middle” buildings—smaller than a high-rise but larger than a single-family home.
Pacaso, in partnership with research firm MetroSight, compiled a list of the top 10 U.S. metro areas embracing the YIMBY movement. To do this, they determined the zip codes where there’s been a substantial increase in new construction without a corresponding price increase, Allison tells Fortune.
In other words, “A ZIP code area was classified as YIMBY if it experienced sharp growth in the number of residential units with relatively little growth in housing prices,” according to Pacaso. Home prices and housing stock were compiled and measured 2008 to 2012 and 2018 to 2022, and the metro areas with the largest share of YIMBY zip codes made the list that follows:
The top 10 YIMBY markets
- Washington, D.C./Arlington/Alexandria
- Chicago/Naperville
- Austin/Round Rock/San Marcos
- Minneapolis/St. Paul
- Columbus/Marion/Zanesville
- San Antonio/New Braunfels/Kerrville
- Philadelphia/Reading/Camden
- New York/Newark
- Kansas City/Overland Park
- Salt Lake City/Provo/Orem
Why the YIMBY movement started and what it means
Housing stock is particularly low in many large metro areas, especially as migration patterns have changed in the post-pandemic era. Take San Francisco, for example, where there’s a major housing crisis, yet NIMBYs and some government officials are preventing new builds.
"As the housing shortage rages across the U.S., a narrative in a lot of smaller cities is emerging: we cannot become the next San Francisco. And they're right,” Laura Foote, executive director of advocacy group YIMBY Action, tells Fortune. “In order to avoid the kind of astronomical housing costs and mass homelessness common in our top-tier cities, they have to adopt pro-housing policies now."
Some companies, including Pacaso and BuildCasa, are approaching YIMBYism in creative ways. Pacaso, for example, allows users to co-own properties, largely in vacation towns, which should make affordable housing stock more available. BuildCasa gives homeowners cash to build housing on extra lot space. For example, BuildCasa can build a duplex in someone’s backyard and sell each of those units separately as a condo, costing around 35% as much as a single-family home, BuildCasa CEO Ben Bear tells Fortune.
“It can really be this new version of the American dream where you still have private outdoor space, and you’re living in the type of single-family neighborhood that people want to live in,” Bear says. “But you can afford homeownership, even if you have a middle-class occupation.”
However, developers and elected officials don’t always see this issue the same way. Some feel as if urban growth is the best way to increase resources, so many cities build up their downtown areas, Peter Burns, a professor at Soka University of America who studies cities and urban planning, tells Fortune.
“YIMBY can succeed—and clearly has in some areas—because of organization,” Burns says. “It is quite difficult, but not impossible, for groups to keep pressure on government over a long period of time. [However], organizing is hard and takes a lot of time.”
