The California state government has not produced studies or empirical data showing that increasing high-density housing increases housing affordability.
Posted by Ask Dr. Drew, Checked
- Sources
- 5 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
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Ask Dr. DrewOct 21, 2026
The claim is the speaker's account of what the state failed to produce in his own courtroom litigation, and none of the sources addresses that record. The sources do show that density-affordability studies exist, but none reports whether the state government produced one, so the claim can be neither confirmed nor refuted.
What was said
… I always stood in court in front of a judge and I said, "Your Honor, force the state to show us the studies, force the state to show us the empirical data that suggests that if you increase high-density housing, somehow you increase housing affordability." And the state was never able to produce a study, never able to produce any information that suggested that if there was an increase in high-density housing, that suddenly or somehow there would be an increase in housing affordability. The correlation is simply not there. What the government needs to do is get out of the market. If the government got out of the housing market entirely, frankly, and actually rolled back a lot of the regulations put on builders, then building housing would …
Ask Dr. Drew · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Context. The claimant's passage describes arguments made in court over state housing mandates, which the sources do not cover. The passage itself cannot corroborate the claim.
Context. The Chapman report finds a positive correlation between greater density and higher housing costs in California metros, which runs against the claim's premise that density helps affordability but does not show what the state produced in court.[1]
Context. The HUD User study and the Urban Institute study, as summarized by NACo, analyze state housing-target and zoning reforms and find limited affordability effects, but neither says whether the state government produced a study linking density to affordability.[2][5]
Context. The St. Paul 'Myths & Facts' document argues that higher densities lower per-unit costs and that new high-density units are more likely to be affordable, but it is a municipal document and does not speak to any state-produced study.[3]
Context. The HCD Final Affordable Housing Cost Study is a state government study, but it addresses the cost of building subsidized multifamily housing rather than whether increasing high-density housing raises affordability, so it does not settle the claim.[4]
Sources
5 sources: 4 primary, 1 not rated
- 1[PDF] Housing Report: Blame Ourselves, Not Our Stars - Chapman Blogsblogs.chapman.edu · primary source · cited for: context
- 2[PDF] Early Evidence on Higher Housing Targets and Rezoning - HUD Userhuduser.gov · primary source · cited for: context
- 3Myths & Facts About Affordable & High Density Housingstpaul.gov · primary source · cited for: context
- 4Final Affordable Housing Cost Study Reporthcd.ca.gov · primary source · cited for: context
- 5June 2024naco.org · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
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