This Is How Maryland Can Address Its Housing Crisis

Maryland, like most other US states, is grappling with a housing crisis that has only worsened over the last 20 years. Long gone are the days when young families bought their starter home on a modest salary, pricing an entire generation out of the American Dream of homeownership. Just how bad have things gotten? Let’s compare life in 2005 to 2026.

In 2005, the average home in the state cost $299,000, and today that same average home is closer to $552,000. The average salary in 2005 was $61,500, compared to just $81,000 today. What that means is that home prices have inflated 84.6 percent over 20 years, while incomes have only grown 31.7 percent.

That widening gap is a huge problem, both for the public and for policymakers, but there is a rather simple solution: Build, and do it fast.

The root cause of Maryland’s housing woes is a chronic undersupply. It’s estimated that Maryland’s current housing shortage is 96,000 units, which is actually slightly worse than the 94,000-unit shortage from a year earlier. This has real consequences because it means a limited supply, which drives prices, inflating purchase prices and rents.

In fact, it is estimated by the state’s Chamber of Commerce that nearly 18,000 people leave the state each year because of this growing problem. Whatever state and local governments do next has to directly address this shortfall, or the issue will get a whole lot worse before it gets any better.

Unfortunately, policymakers at both the state and local levels appear to be focused on all of the wrong “solutions” to address the shortage. Pricing algorithms and the legislative effort to ban them are a perfect example of dressing up bad policy as a solution, when the solution is staring legislators right in the face.

At the state level, legislators have kicked the tires on banning these platforms, and local governments, like in Montgomery County, are considering the same.

This push is misguided for two reasons: it does absolutely nothing to address the shortage, and these platforms serve as an equalizer in the market. When pricing decisions about rent are based on market data rather than personal preferences or bias, you get a fairer system. Anything that reduces human error is worth a second look, and these tools are available to everyone, from the long-term condo landlord to the immigrant property owner running a corner store.

The same applies to rent control, which is framed as a means of stabilizing rent. And while it may do just that for those in existing rental agreements, it creates a massive disincentive to build, making the shortage worse. This is exactly what happened in Montgomery County after rent control was passed in 2024. Because of rent control, multifamily building permits plummeted 94 percent. A recent report from the County reveals that in the seven quarters before rent control was adopted, an average of 582 multifamily building permits were issued per quarter. In the roughly four quarters since rent control was put in place, that number fell to just 23.

Rather than focusing on tech platforms and worn-out economic policies like rent control, the state should prioritize policies that encourage building rather than discourage it. Housing gets cheaper when you allow more of it to be built.

In practice, this looks like cutting exclusionary zoning, mandatory parking rules, low-density ceilings, and other permitting constraints that stop builders from meeting demand.

Real-world reforms back this approach up. Auckland, New Zealand, rewrote its land-use rules in 2016 to legalize mid- and higher-density homes across most residential neighborhoods, triggering a wave of new construction and noticeably slower rent growth than the rest of New Zealand through 2024 — research estimates rents ended up far lower than they would have otherwise. In Minneapolis, the 2018 “Minneapolis 2040” plan ended single-family-only zoning citywide and eased parking and density limits; a 2025 analysis found meaningfully lower prices and rents in the years that followed.

Austin took a similar supply-first approach and, after loosening constraints, added roughly 50,000 rental units across 2023–2024, one of the largest jumps among major U.S. cities.

With the playbook already mapped out by other jurisdictions, there is no need to reinvent the wheel here. The only way out of the housing crisis for Maryland is to build, not search for new things to ban.

Stephen Kent is the Media Director for the Consumer Choice Center. Follow him on X @stephenkentx