UCLA Housing Voice

We're joined by our co-authors to discuss a few Lewis Center studies on Measure ULA, a transfer tax in the city of Los Angeles, that made a big splash. This is part 10 of our series on misaligned incentives in housing policy.
Show notes:
Manville, M., & Smith, M. (2025). The Unintended Consequences of Measure ULA. UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies.
Ward, J., & Phillips, S. (2025). Taxing Tomorrow: Measure ULA's Impact on Multifamily Housing Production and Potential Reforms. RAND Corporation and UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies.
Green, D., Jambulapati, V., Liebersohn, J., & Velayudhan, T. (2025). Fiscal Externalities of Transaction Taxes: Evidence from the Los Angeles Mansion Tax. Available at SSRN 5273034.
Manville, M., Smith, M., & Phillips, S. (2025). The Consequences of Measure ULA: Some Clarifications. UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies.
Shane’s blog post about the BAE report on the impact of a 15-year waiver on the ULA tax for new multifamily and commercial development.

Enterprise Community Partners has been running a renter wealth-building program since 2022. How’s it going? And what comes next?
Show notes:
Enterprise Community Partners’ Renter Wealth Creation Fund website.
The Renter Wealth Creation Fund term sheet.
UCLA Housing Voice episode 108: Building Wealth by Renting with Shane Phillips and Bob Simpson.
Phillips, S. (2025). Building Renter Wealth: An Evaluation of Shared Prosperity Rental (SPR) Housing Program Design and Feasibility. UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies.
Executive summary for the SPR report.

Joined by a 20-year veteran of Fannie Mae, Shane shares findings from his work on a proposed new model for building renter wealth: shared prosperity rental housing.
Show notes:
Phillips, S. (2025). Building Renter Wealth: An Evaluation of Shared Prosperity Rental (SPR) Housing Program Design and Feasibility. UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies.
Executive summary for the SPR report.
Shane’s 2021 article in The Atlantic, “Renting is Terrible, Owning is Worse.”
Shane’s blog posts preceding and following the article in The Atlantic.
Monkkonen, P., Carlton, I., & Macfarlane, K. (2020). One to four: The market potential of fourplexes in California’s single-family neighborhoods. UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies.
The Multifamily Impact Council’s Multifamily Impact Framework.
Enterprise Community Partners’ Renter Wealth Creation Fund website.
Colorado Renter Rewards program website.

Fixed-rate mortgages are expensive, but adjustable-rate mortgages are volatile — but do they have to be? Kevin Erdmann pitches an alternative that captures the best qualities of both. This is part 9 of our series on misaligned incentives in housing policy.
Show notes:
Erdmann, K. (2021). A Suggested Mortgage Amortization Structure: Fixed Amortization, Adjustable Principal. Mercatus Center.
UCLA Housing Voice episode 106: Mortgage Lending Standards with Kevin Erdmann.

This is the shortened "highlights" version of episode 106. You can listen to the full interview here.
Was the housing market really oversupplied in the mid-2000s? Kevin Erdmann says no, and he explains how this misunderstanding is at the root of present-day affordability problems. This is part 8 of our series on misaligned incentives in housing policy.
Show notes:
Erdmann, K. (2018). Housing Was Undersupplied during the Great Housing Bubble. Mercatus Center.
Erdmann, K. (2024). Getting Corporate Money Out of Single-Family Homes Won’t Help the Housing Affordability Crisis. Mercatus Center.
Erdmann Housing Tracker: Mortgages Outstanding by Credit Score
Erdmann Housing Tracker: Follow-Up: Mortgages by Credit Score
Erdmann, K. (2021). A Suggested Mortgage Amortization Structure: Fixed Amortization, Adjustable Principal. Mercatus Center.