American cities are more productive than ever. They facilitate world-changing innovation in information technology, life sciences, and finance, generating enormous wealth. Despite this, they are plagued by serious problems. Crime, low school quality, poor governance, and high housing costs combine to create a quality of life that is significantly lower than pre-tax incomes and overall economic activity would sug­gest. While the causes of these problems are many and varied, they are to a significant degree downstream of one recurring pattern: the bimodal distribution of real estate ownership. Most adults fall into one of two categories: homeowner or renter…

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