What Can States Do to Reform Land Use and Support Factory-Built Housing?

Today the Terner Center joined the National Housing Crisis Task Force and other national research institutions in releasing white papers on key elements of the housing system: data, regulation, land, capital, construction, operational sustainability, and governance. The goal is to provide policymakers and practitioners with research-based, practical ideas to address housing challenges in their state.

Terner Center researchers co-authored three papers as part of this work:

The Role of States in Planning for Housing in the 21st Century

Across the United States, land use regulation has largely been decentralized, as state governments historically have delegated this power to local governments. Now, some States are experimenting with exercising preemptive powers and developing mandates that require local governments to plan and zone for housing or face penalties. This report examines the evolving relationship between state and local land use authority in California, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, and Oregon. It highlights what experts in these states have identified as successes in the policy realm to inform evolving roles for States in land use.

Catalyzing Factory-Built Housing: Policy Themes Across Four State Ecosystems

Factory-built housing (FBH) offers a potential pathway to reduce housing development costs and shorten timelines, but scaling the industry requires coordinated state-level policy action. This report tests key policy themes for FBH in the context of four states: California, Colorado, Virginia, and Michigan. The report finds that states seeking to build a sustainable FBH market should focus on four interlocking priorities: removing regulatory and process barriers, unlocking financing, coordinating demand, and investing in workforce development and public perception to support long-term market growth.

Remaking Housing Federalism for a New Era 

The U.S. housing system is highly federated, comprising a financing and consumer protection regime and a land use regime. This paper describes the evolution and potential future of Housing Federalism, arguing for restoring the federal government’s role as a valued, trusted, and indispensable partner, while also contending that states, localities, and the private and civic sectors must realize their full potential as catalysts of housing production and preservation. This report examines how the roles of federal, state, and local governments are shifting and how to take the best local innovations to scale.

The series of research publications will inform the Task Force’s National Housing Agenda, to be published in January. The entire collection can be found on the Task Force website.