In a new opinion essay for The Washington Post, Luskin urban planning professor Mike Manville examines the unintended consequences of Los Angeles’ Measure ULA, commonly known as the “mansion tax.” Intended to generate funding for affordable housing and homelessness programs by taxing high-value property sales, the measure instead demonstrates how policy design can shape outcomes in unexpected ways.

Manville argues that Measure ULA’s high tax rates on a narrow segment of real estate transactions reduced property sales, generated significantly less revenue than projected, and may have discouraged new housing construction. “The devil is in the details,” he writes, emphasizing that while “good intentions matter, [the] boring details matter more.” Rather than dismissing the need for affordable housing programs, Manville contends that they should work alongside efforts to increase housing production. He concludes that expanding the housing supply remains essential to improving affordability, arguing that “rents won’t come down until housing comes up.”

“A safety net is crucial, but programs like Measure ULA need to complement, not compete with or cannibalize, efforts to build.” Read the full op-ed in Washington Post.