Houston has a higher single-family detached-home ratio than the Bay Area [1]. It's not that Houston's lack of zoning laws lets more people build the missing mid

Houston has a higher single-family detached-home ratio than the Bay Area [1]. It's not that Houston's lack of zoning laws lets more people build the missing middle that is lacking in the Bay Area; it's that the geography of Texas allows growth-by-sprawl in a way that is lacking in the Bay Area, which has to grow by densification. When I visited Houston, the lack of sane urban planning was immediately evident. It is insanity to have a neighborhood of single-family detached housing literally across the street from 20-story towers adjacent to the transit line--that's exactly what Houston has. [1] See https://www.census.gov/construction/bps/visualizations/msamap/index.html https://www.census.gov/construction/bps/visualizations/msama..., you have to hover MSAs and do the math yourself for precise ratios, but the difference between Houston and the San Jose MSAs is stark enough to not need to do the calculations.