Pew Testifies to Texas Legislature About Policies to Address Housing Shortage

Texas has a shortage of more than 300,000 homes, which has pushed homeownership out of reach for many families and helped to drive up rents across the state. Alex Horowitz, the director of The Pew Charitable Trusts’ housing policy initiative, shared testimony with a state house committee on April 3, 2025, in support of legislation that would lower barriers to the construction of smaller homes in Texas. Removing those barriers would increase the availability of different types of homes and improve affordability.

In his remarks to the Texas House Committee on Land and Resource Management, Horowitz cited Pew’s extensive research on housing costs, testifying that strict land-use regulations are a major driver of high home prices and rising rents. Some regulations, such as minimum lot sizes, hinder the construction of entry-level homes such as town houses. By updating its rules, Horowitz said, Texas could improve affordability and make homeownership attainable for more working families.

Horowitz pointed to Texas’ largest city, Houston, as a success story. By reducing minimum lot sizes, Houston enabled the construction of 80,000 additional new homes, which would have been blocked by previous regulations, over a 25-year period from 1998 to 2023. This additional construction significantly restrained housing costs and allowed thousands of middle-income Houston families to purchase homes.