I really like @mattyglesias (I’m a paid subscriber) and he’s done a lot to popularize the YIMBY approach, but I don’t think he fully understands what a developer is or does.

First, the idea that there are no developers in rural areas is just not true. There are many of them!

Part of it is his limited context - in expensive metros, navigating fraught, political permitting processes is the hallmark of a developer. In most places, though, developers are simply organizers of risk capital for real estate. This is the best way to think about the role.

Land must be acquired, and the construction of a building funded, before a project generates income. It is an inherently risky enterprise; costs might run over, tenants may not materialize. Piecing together bank loans and equity commitments is a full-time job, among many others.

Even rural homebuilders (the ones building lower-cost houses) are developers: buying or optioning land, subdividing it, working through countless local permitting issues, grading and installing utilities to some degree on spec, and hoping to turn a profit on the enterprise.

The swashbuckling developer in a gentrifying metro, striking elaborate public-private partnerships and turning old canneries into luxury lofts, is an exception. But if you live in DC (as Matt does) or in NY (as I do), you might get the impression all developers did this.