Minneapolis managed to lower its overall inflation rate just by getting rid of rules that only allowed for single-family homes.
March 25, 2026
Original Paper
Land Supply Reform as Inflation Policy: Evidence from the Minneapolis 2040 Zoning Reform
SSRN · 6325038
The Takeaway
Most people view zoning reform as a slow, long-term solution for housing prices. This study shows it can act as a rapid macroeconomic lever; by suppressing rent growth, the policy effectively lowered the entire city's cost of living (CPI) relative to the national average in just a few years.
From the abstract
This paper examines whether housing supply conditions affect the upstream cost driver of non-tradable services inflation. A companion paper (Ellis, 2026b) establishes that rent inflation systematically forecasts services inflation but not tradable goods prices in the same city under identical specifications-evidence consistent with a selective cost transmission mechanism operating through occupancy costs. The present paper asks a distinct question: what happens when the upstream rent pressure is