As readers of this Substack, you are most likely acutely aware that across the country there is a massive shortage of housing units. This had led to increased costs, with buyers and renters having little advantage in bargaining power. However, there is a scene playing out in Asheville, North Carolina that every Democratic mayor should watch. New apartment buildings are sitting empty to the point that landlords are stacking rental deals, and offering incentives and price cuts to prospective rentals. One tenant of the new Rockberry complex in Arden was shocked that an upscale complex with amenities such as a pool was so cheap, he told the local ABC affiliate: “Honestly, a lot of apartments I looked at were really pricey,” he said. “And I’m like, wow, the prices here are really cheap.”
There is no secret formula in order to obtain outcomes like this. The city did what should be happening across the nation: build more units.
Asheville is not done building yet. According to Costar, while construction starts have declined slightly from the highs in mid-2024, in 2025, there were still almost 3,000 units under construction, and once completed would increase the existing housing inventory by over 12%!
Obviously there was also a massive external factor occurring in Asheville in 2024, Hurricane Helene, which dented demand, but Realpage data shows that Asheville apartment owners have been cutting rent before the hurricane, and since November 2023. By 2024, we were already seeing rents fall by 2.3% YoY, which was one of the biggest declines among U.S.’s 150 largest apartment markets.
It’s also important to note that rents were not decreasing because of an ailing labor market. Helene did have an impact on jobs in the fall of 2024, with a 2% decline in employment, but did see all but 500 of those net job losses recover by the end of the year.
Currently, rental platforms like Apartment list has the median rent in Asheville listed at $1,321, which is down 4.2% YoY, and platforms like Rentcafe highlight that the average rent for an apartment in Asheville is currently at $1,676, which. is a 2.9% decrease compared to the year before! ABC cites that four years ago the median one-bedroom apartment was around $1,400 a month and today the figure is closer to $1,200. The proof is in the pudding, and we are seeing supply work.
Notice that rents went down without any of the policy interventions that market skeptics typically favor. There were no rent caps, no forcing landlords to lower of prices, but instead the landlords responded to the market shift and are doing it themselves. They are now competing for tenants the same way tenants are still competing for apartments across the country.
This the part that some leftists keep missing. If you treat housing as a scarce commodity, the landlord holds all the power. Deal with the absurd prices, because chances are, especially in high demand cities, someone is right behind you to offer more than asking price. New York City remains a perfect example, where people line up down the street to view a singular apartment! I have stories from friends who would be filling out applications while in line for the apartment, before being able to even view it, and by the time it is their chance to see the unit, it has already been taken.
When housing is an abundant in supply, now it is the tenant who has the leverage. The tenant can tour multiple buildings, can be offered concessions and have the next seller try to match it. Every rental incentive and price cut happening in Asheville right now is an example of a transfer of power from the owners to the renters, funded by the so-called evil developers!
If your politics focus on redistributing power from those who own assets, to those who can only rent, this is a favorable outcome, and surplus of units is its own form of redistribution. Scarcity fuels the power of landlords and the only way out is to build your way through until the renter can set the terms.
The same case continues to be made in every YIMBY’s favorite city, Austin, Texas! A city that added 120,000 units to its housing stock from 2015-2024, more than three times the growth rate in the U.S., rings similar to the story unfolding in Asheville. Both of these cities are liberal ponds in red-leaning states. The same states where is is easier for the surrounding regulatory and construction environment to approve multifamily projects and deliver them before the demand overwhelms the market.
This is an embarrassing fact for blue-state Democrats to have to deal with. Cities proving that liberal renters can win via abundance and supply-forward thinking, typically are the same ones operating outside the archaic entitlement guantlets of our most progressive states. The politics of cities like Austin and Asheville may be progressive, but the permitting allowed in the state is fast and turns out when you do both, renters win.
In 2024, Asheville commissioned a Missing Middle Housing study, and its Planning and Zoning Commission recommending ADU and backyard-lot reforms in May 2024. But those reforms never made it through to the city council agenda, as council members were concerned it would accelerate displacement in vulnerable communities.
After reading this piece that tidbit could be a bit a bit confusing. The multifamily projects that did get approved allowed for more negotiating power than any ordinance the council has ever passed. But still the reforms that were stalled were put onpause due to the wildly debunked theory that new housing somehow displaces people. And it is why the displacement story needs to be put to rest. Every new building is not a threat to the existing members of the community, the evidence shows it running the opposite direction. In fact, even the affordable apartment developments are competing for tenants. One 120-unit affordable complex in Arden has only filled around 70 units. This shows that when even income-restricted housing has open doors, the crisis of scarcity has no match.
Thankfully, the Asheville city council did not pause on their reform agenda for too long and recently passed large parts of their missing middle agenda. They have recently passed reforms that will lead to the legalization of duplexes in residential districts, where prior to the passage of the new bill, was illegal to do so in two-thirds of the city! The Council also raised the size caps on ADUs, from what was suitable prior for a single occupant to now can fit two-bedroom ADUs.
These cities are perfect examples for the progressive case for building. Democrats should rely less on the power of meetings and mulling over projects that we know would ease the housing crisis and start focus on pouring foundations.