Permitting Prosperity: Reducing Delays to Increase Housing Supply

Owning a home has long been a key part of the American dream. However, as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reported last year, the United States has a shortage of nearly 4.7 million homes, driving up prices for Americans across the country. As the mean home price has nearly doubled in the United States in the last decade, policymakers have moved to make the homebuilding process more efficient. Between July 2024 and June 2025, state legislators across all 50 states passed 124 bills aimed at increasing housing supply. Amid this surge in housing legislation, efforts to streamline the building approval process have gained traction nationwide.

Permitting complications and inefficiencies have hindered housing developments in countless communities. One must look no further than San Francisco to see just how strenuous this process can become. Due to approval requirements from multiple government departments, mandatory environmental review, and a severe backlog of pending permits, San Francisco’s average permitting approval process takes between two and five months for single-family homes and up to thirty months for multifamily projects. Cities and states with similar regulatory processes obstruct developers from increasing housing supply while forcing them to spend thousands of dollars on permitting and compliance delays.

Kansas and Washington serve as recent examples of states moving to enact streamlined permitting processes. The two bills enacted by these states include measures that enable third-party inspectors to replace absent government agencies, establish by-right housing developments, and place strict time limits on permitting approval processes. Florida serves as a prime example of the likely impact these measures will have, as its continued use and expansion of private inspectors in the permitting process since the early 2000s and its strict permit approval deadlines have empowered developers to navigate any delays that could increase building costs. By mitigating the deleterious effects of inefficient government regulations in the housing sector, these bills will pave the way for these states to increase their housing supply and, in doing so, enable them to deliver meaningful results to their residents.

For those across the country seeking to replicate the innovative ideas presented in these bills, ALEC’s model policies offer a trustworthy path. The ALEC model By-Right Housing Development Act streamlines the homebuilding approval process for developments that meet all the rules of the given community. In doing so, this model policy respects local considerations while confronting unnecessary delays and the costs associated with them. Additionally, ALEC’s Third-Party Challenges to Development Permits is designed to increase housing production by restricting third-party objections to housing permit approvals unless the objector has an adjacent property and can prove the project directly harms them or their property. Lastly, the ALEC model Accessory Dwelling Units Act establishes a thirty-day limit on the permit approval for ADUs that comply with relevant building and safety codes. Taken together, these bills serve as a valuable framework for those hoping to increase housing production in their states and join the fight against unnecessary permitting delays.

There are many ways to address the United States’ housing affordability issue, and it won’t be solved overnight. However, increasing governmental efficiency is an effective strategy to drive down prices and get homes built more quickly. This is a prime opportunity for states to lead the fight in decreasing the barriers to homeownership.