From the inception of the Friendship Heights Alliance in 2023, gathering diverse perspectives has been central to everything we do, from marketing to placemaking and community building. What we hear consistently is that people want more vitality, local businesses, and housing — and Friendship Heights, with nearly with nearly 40 acres of underutilized land, has a real opportunity to deliver it. That means housing at scale, a greater variety of types, and dedicated affordable housing for low- and middle-income residents.
Creating that capacity is not simple, and we know the conversations around it can be contentious. This guide is our attempt to address the key concepts honestly, including some that get distorted in public debate. We believe the evidence is clear, and we’ve linked to the underlying research behind these 11 questions so that anyone can read and evaluate it for themselves.
Our north star is straightforward: a neighborhood and a region where people at every income level have access to a safe and stable home. We think Friendship Heights can and should be part of the solution.
Why do we need to build more homes?
We need more homes to accommodate both a growing population and smaller household sizes. The U.S. population has increased by 21% since 2020. Housing construction hasn’t kept pace, creating a shortage of 3–7 million homes, depending on how it’s measured. Even if the U.S. population stayed the same, we would still need to build more homes because more people are living alone or in smaller families. Increasing the supply of homes where people want to live makes housing more affordable overall, provides customer bases to sustain local businesses, and creates economic and social flexibility. However, in many places, especially those close to job centers, housing production has not kept pace with population growth.
Do we really need more housing here in Friendship Heights?
Friendship Heights is one of the best places to add housing in the region because it already has Metro, bus lines, schools, parks, grocery stores, and jobs nearby. Yet very little housing has been built here in decades, even as demand has grown.
That drives up prices and limits who can live here, especially young families and low and middle income workers. With nearly 40 acres of underused land like surface parking lots, we can add homes while also creating greener, more walkable public spaces and supporting local businesses. A range of housing types helps make the community strong and inclusive.
Most people can’t afford new construction. How does building more new housing help them?
Over time, buildings that were once new and expensive become more affordable as they age. In fact, most of today’s relatively affordable homes were built as market-rate housing decades ago. Without enough new supply, that cycle breaks, and higher income households compete for older units, pushing prices up for everyone. This process is known as “filtering up” or “downward displacement.”
Studies consistently show that when supply increases, rent growth slows and price increases moderate not only in new buildings, but in surrounding neighborhoods as well.
Why is so much new housing built at the top of the market? It seems like the only housing being produced is “luxury.”
The cost of building housing is extraordinarily high, with large upfront expenses for construction, labor, design, financing, and regulatory approvals. To be financeable, projects must command rents or sales prices that cover these costs, which is why new construction so often occurs at the high end of the market.
Many times, the real alternative to building new “luxury” housing is not cheaper new housing, but no new housing at all, which leads to more competition for limited homes and rising prices for everyone. If we want long-term affordability, we need both new market-rate housing and targeted affordable housing programs working together.
How does additional housing impact my neighborhood and quality of life?
People often support more housing in general but worry about what it means near their own homes. Construction brings noise, dust, and traffic, which are real but temporary. A common long term concern is around parking and congestion. That is why it makes sense to add housing near Metro, bus lines, and within walking distance of shops and services, where people rely less on cars. More residents nearby means more customers for local businesses, supporting a vibrant mix of shops, cafes, and services and creating safer, more active streets.
Why can’t we just mandate that builders can only build income-restricted housing?
Ensuring enough housing for low and moderate income families is essential. But newly built income-restricted housing requires very large subsidies, which limits how much can be built. In the DC region, affordable housing can cost $700,000 to $1 million per unit to construct. That does not mean we should not build it! We should, and public investment is critical. But affordable and market rate housing should not be treated as competing choices. We need both.
Market rate housing meets overall demand and reduces pressure on existing homes, while subsidized housing helps ensure lower-income households can live in high- opportunity neighborhoods. The goal should be to make all types of housing easier and less expensive to build so we can produce more of what the region needs.
How can building market-rate housing improve affordability for low-income families?
Study after study demonstrates that adding housing supply, regardless of the type or price point, alleviates housing costs across all income levels and product types.
In areas where there aren’t enough homes overall to meet demand, higher-income households bid up prices for older, more modest units. However, when there are enough homes, wealthier households tend to move into new or higher-end units, freeing up existing ones for others.
Building new market-rate housing doesn’t make housing cheap overnight, but continually enabling new supply to be built is the most efficient way to keep up with housing demand and ensure that housing costs do not spiral further out of reach.
Subsidized and market-rate housing draw on entirely different financing systems, and right now both are under stress. Market-rate production and affordable housing are not in competition. They are complementary.
How does additional housing impact my neighborhood and quality of life?
People often support more housing in general but worry about what it means near their own homes. Construction brings noise, dust, and traffic, which are real but temporary. A common long-term concern is around parking and congestion. That is why it makes sense to add housing near Metro, bus lines, and within walking distance of shops and services, where people rely less on cars. Research consistently shows that housing near transit does not increase traffic the way opponents predict, because residents with walkable access to Metro are far less likely to drive. More residents nearby means more customers for local businesses, supporting a vibrant mix of shops, cafes, and services and creating safer, more active streets.
Doesn’t building new housing mean cutting down trees? Isn’t that bad for the environment?
It can be hard to see a tree come down for new construction. However, every home built near Metro in a walkable place like Friendship Heights is a home that doesn’t get built on a forest or farm at the region’s edges, where sprawl does far more environmental damage through habitat loss and long car commutes. One tree removed here can mean an acre of woods saved elsewhere. Trees can be replanted; and our urban forestry divisions in Montgomery County and DC have robust requirements for stormwater management and maintaining tree canopies. Concentrating growth near transit is one of the best tools we have for protecting the region’s open spaces, streams, and natural habitats.
Can’t we just make developers add dedicated affordable housing to their market-rate projects?
Montgomery County, DC, and many other jurisdictions require some new developments to include affordable units through inclusionary zoning, or “IZ.” These policies can help create mixed-income communities and place affordable homes in high-opportunity areas, so they are sometimes treated like a magic wand for solving affordability.
…But they also act like a tax on new housing and renters. Requiring below-market units raises costs and reduces project feasibility. Builders must recover those costs through higher prices on other units or by not building at all. That leads to fewer total homes and higher rents for households who do not qualify. IZ cannot replace direct public funding and must be designed carefully to avoid shrinking overall housing supply.
What can we do to support the building of more homes in Friendship Heights?
We are truly optimistic about the opportunity to build more housing in Friendship Heights! Landowners are repositioning their properties and eager to attract new investment in our neighborhood, including units for all household types and income levels.
The District of Columbia and Montgomery County are undertaking planning processes that can remove some of the barriers that limit new construction. Much of the work completed to date has reaffirmed that much of what defines Friendship Heights — its scale, mix of uses, concentration of employment, shopping, transit access, walkability, and quality public spaces — are what make it an ideal place to build new homes.
More questions after reviewing our robust research deck? Anything to add? Contact hello@friendshipheights.com.