aren’t Real Estate lobbies most powerful with local governments?
The local and national lobbies work very differently.
Locally, the commercial real estate developers are the most active. And often it’s case by case, as opposed to policy lobbying. It’s one developer buying off local officials to get a particular project approved. It’s not like there is a powerful coalition trying to fight against building restrictions generically.
Nationally, you have a broader coalition fighting for tax and mortgage subsidies. You have the home builders as a trade group, plus real estate agents, plus mortgage bankers, plus Wall Street.
So the folks fighting to subsidize demand are powerful at the national level. At the local level, where the decisions are made to restrict supply, the activist groups that fight development are opposed only by home builders, and the home builders are usually just trying to get individual projects approved.
Locally, commercial developers are more about what they can extract from authorities in return for development, while residential developers are more about what they have to pay for local infrastructure.
Regional contractor associations, as well as anti-construction activists, also lobby at the state level. In my state (Washington) construction is slowed by dueling state, local, and county agencies. Our road, for example, has annual flooding problems. The construction of the road decades ago involved a ditch for draining. The state redefined a ditch as a seasonal waterway, thus under the regulation of multiple state agencies. These agencies block the clearing of the ditch and the restoration of culverts that would improve water flow. Of course, in urban areas, which drive the environmental activism to regulate the rural areas, the prime environmental factor under consideration is the potential for tax revenues. So all the “ditches” are kept clear, mountains are leveled, and valleys and their wetlands are filled for any development that will enrich local governments. Because the natural environment, despite its charm, pays no tax.