🌅 Selling Public Land Won’t Fix Housing

Sunrise Stat
June 25, 2025

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A new analysis by Headwater Economics found just 2% of the public land overseen by the Forest Service and the Interior Department are close enough to towns with housing needs to make development practical. Most of the roughly 2.4 million acres is concentrated in five Western states: Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.

Of the federal land suitable for development, more than half (58%) faces high wildfire risk, making development truly practical across only about 1 million acres. Beyond wildfire risk, much of the land is already used for wildlife protection or leased for agricultural or resource purposes, posing legal and fiscal constraints to new uses, including housing.

On Tuesday, the Senate parliamentarian ruled Republicans’ budget proposal cannot include a provision that would force the sale of millions of acres of public land. Proponents of the proposal argue the sale would help alleviate the nation’s housing crisis (Kamala Harris even supported the idea), however, critics say it would have a minimal impact on housing, since only a small portion of the land is suitable for development and the bill doesn’t include safeguards to ensure the land is even used for housing.