Who Builds More Density: Houston or Portland?

Does Houston's unzoned, free-market approach or Portland's more comprehensively-planned approach build more density? A comparison looks at what's happening in the more planned, high-growth, Sunbelt cities.

1 minute read

July 16, 2007, 8:00 AM PDT

By Christian Madera @http://www.twitter.com/cpmadera


Tory Gattis writes on his blog:

"The results are a pretty clear win for Houston: more dense units, more units per building (except for a slight advantage by Portland), and more new units per 1,000 population. Portland is able to achieve slightly higher densities, but at a cost of about 25% lower unit production per capita. Phoenix is producing a whopping 76% less density than Houston relative to its population. Dallas has about 40% less high-density and overall residential production relative to its population. So much for vision and comprehensive planning.

Houston's free market approach is creating more density (at lower cost, by the way), allowing more people to move into the core with shorter commutes creating less pollution, while also pumping more discretionary income into the core, supporting more vibrancy and amenities."

Thanks to Tory Gattis

Thursday, March 29, 2007 in Houston Strategies

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