From Preservation Action:

PlaceEconimics, a private sector firm that focuses on thorough and robust analysis of the economic impacts of historic preservation, recently released The YIMBY Movement: Historic Preservation's Response. In recent years, as the country contends with an affordable housing crisis, the Yes in my Backyard (YIMBY) movement has gained momentum pushing for deregulation and a developer-driven approach as a solution to the affordable housing shortage. Historic Preservation has increasingly become a target of the YIMBY movement in some cities, as they seek to remove so called barriers to affordable housing. 

Local Historic Districts have been a prime target for the YIMBY Movement. As the report highlights, in cities across the country, historic districts are often the best examples density, affordability, and diversity in a city. Historic districts make up a small share of a cities' land area, usually 2-6%, but are often significantly more dense than other parts of the city, have seen population growth at a higher rate, and have more racial diversity and income diversity than the rest of the city. 

The report also contends that the problem is less that we are building too few housing units, but because we are tearing too many down. Over the last 30 years, we've lost more 8 million housing units built before 1970. Older housing is often naturally occurring affordable housing. On average, housing built before 1970 is 16% less expensive than newer housing. As the report notes, instead of focusing on historic districts, which are the parts of the city that are the most dense and provide the most affordability, we should focus more on rehabilitating our older, existing housing which provides more affordability. 

Check out the full report from PlaceEconomics to learn more, including additional analysis and specific case studies.

Learn More: https://www.placeeconomics.com/resources/the-yimby-movement-historic-preservations-response