# Pencilling Out Notes on housing policy and urban economics. Twin Cities and Chicago-focused. Page: Feed: --- ## [Minneapolis needs to reduce minimum lot sizes](https://pencillingout.substack.com/p/minneapolis-needs-to-reduce-minimum) _2026-05-21 · Zak Yudhishthu_ A simple, well-tested zoning change can make homeownership more affordable in the city ## [Can new studio apartments open more homes for families?](https://pencillingout.substack.com/p/can-new-studio-apartments-open-more) _2026-05-12 · Zak Yudhishthu_ A research review, and some new data analysis ## [When America's downtowns ruled the world](https://pencillingout.substack.com/p/when-americas-downtowns-ruled-the) _2026-03-27 · Zak Yudhishthu_ A review of "Downtown" by Robert Fogelson ## [Life next to the great urban barrier](https://pencillingout.substack.com/p/life-next-to-the-great-urban-barrier) _2026-03-10 · Zak Yudhishthu_ When your home sits alongside the expressway ## [Reflections on a year of reading Chicago](https://pencillingout.substack.com/p/reflections-on-a-year-of-reading) _2026-01-22 · Zak Yudhishthu_ A journey through the Windy City's many great books ## [Chicago's downtown family boom](https://pencillingout.substack.com/p/chicagos-downtown-family-boom) _2025-11-10 · Zak Yudhishthu_ And what it can tell us about building family-friendly cities ## [Can we boost density by restricting lower-density housing?](https://pencillingout.substack.com/p/can-we-boost-density-by-restricting) _2025-10-03 · Zak Yudhishthu_ Is this "zoning, but good", or just more bad zoning? ## [Why do we block housing in cash-strapped cities?](https://pencillingout.substack.com/p/why-do-we-block-housing-in-cash-strapped) _2025-08-25 · Zak Yudhishthu_ How collective action problems and inequality keep us constrained ## [Solving Minneapolis' Housing Affordability Impasse](https://pencillingout.substack.com/p/solving-minneapolis-housing-affordability) _2025-07-11 · Zak Yudhishthu_ Housing affordability, when housing is already... pretty affordable ## [Transcript-Driven Stock Discovery (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/cVgmTHpVVX6v) _2025-07-11 · **Sponsored**_ Ranked, evidence-backed watchlists from indexed executive transcripts for 1–2 quarter horizons ## [Some cities reached peak households in 2020 — even after past population decline](https://pencillingout.substack.com/p/some-cities-reached-peak-households) _2025-06-12 · Zak Yudhishthu_ An under-recognized fact that matters for cities' housing supply