Salim will present an understanding of housing markets and land use regulation grounded in institutional economics. Instead of viewing housing as an interchangeable commodity, Mercatus Center research emphasizes the overlapping institutions that make the housing market a market for neighbors, schools, lifestyles, and communities. Local zoning boards have a strong say in where we live now, but they do so within the context of pervasive federal and state distortion, direct and indirect. If we could choose, what sorts of neighborhoods would we build for ourselves?