Trump gets it right on zoning policies

Economic populism is at odds with free-market economics as the former attempts to rile up “the people” by pitching simplistic ideas that fuel resentments. The latter focuses on time-tested principles that make us wealthier and freer — even if they aren’t widely understood or popular with the broader public.

It’s encouraging, however, when those who trade in cheap populism see the light. A good example involves the housing market. Prices have soared nationwide because of government building restrictions that add costs to construction and reduce supply. When he was president, Donald Trump touched that issue in an expectedly populist way.

In a 2020 Wall Street Journal column, Trump and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson detailed a dark vision of “ultraliberals” waging war on the suburbs by compelling “the construction of high-density ‘stack and pack’ apartment buildings in residential neighborhoods [to] forcibly transform neighborhoods across America.”

As with most populist buncombe, it keys off something that’s partially true. Many progressive urbanists are trying to promote higher-density, transit-oriented communities and are hostile to car-oriented suburbs. Yet these efforts mostly try to reduce housing regulations to allow the construction of higher-density apartment and condos. Their proposals don’t go far enough by streamlining single-family construction, but it’s a start.

These days, candidate Trump has taken a different approach from his “protecting the suburbs” talking point. In a widely remarked upon interview with Bloomberg, Trump complained about excessive regulations. He criticized the current permitting process. “Our zoning, if — and I went through years of zoning,” he argued. “Zoning is like… it’s a killer. But we’ll be doing that, and we’ll be bringing the price of housing down.”

We certainly wish Trump spent more time elaborating on those serious points than fixating on Kamala Harris’ background. But his words point to a better approach than the rent-control idea floated by the Biden administration. Populism never solves anything. Market-based ideas solve problems. It’s unlikely Trump has gotten the free-market religion, but in this presidential race we’ll take what we can get.