Commentary: A New ‘Grand Bargain’ for American Housing

In a piece for Strong Towns, Charles Marohn calls for a new “housing bargain,” arguing that the pattern of housing development in American cities that has been accepted for decades is no longer working.

For Marohn, the “unspoken grand bargain” of U.S. development has been that “No neighborhood needs to change; they can all stay in their current form, but in exchange, one or two neighborhoods will experience radical transformation.”

This sacrificing of some neighborhoods for the sake of others perpetuates inequities and harms all types of neighborhoods. “The neighborhoods that avoid change aren’t static; they’re slowly declining. Costs keep increasing. The tax base does not. The lack of incremental adaptation means that they’re becoming less financially productive, more expensive to maintain and increasingly fragile.”

On the other side, neighborhoods that do experience transformation also see rising costs, displacement, and predatory practices.

Marohn proposes a new bargain: “Every neighborhood needs to experience a bit of change; they all need to evolve and mature, but no neighborhood should experience radical change.” By recognizing that change is inevitable, this approach allows for incremental, organic growth. According to Marohn, “For places to make this change, a conversation needs to happen at the community level. Residents need to understand that a neighborhood evolving over time is not something to fear but something to embrace. It’s the only way to ensure that our cities remain vibrant, adaptable and accessible to everyone.”