About this tool
This report proposes Freedom Cities: new municipalities built by private developers over 5 to 25 years on suitable federal land in the American West. It focuses on land managed by the Bureau of Land Management and ties the idea to a national housing shortage estimated at 4 to 8 million homes.
- Shows
- A policy proposal and report from the AEI Housing Center for building new, privately developed cities on suitable federal land managed by the Bureau of Land Management in ten Western states, with a downloadable PDF and related commentary.
- Places
- Nation, States
- Years
- 2025
Questions it answers
- Could federal land be used to build new cities and ease the housing shortage?
- How much land does the Bureau of Land Management manage in the Western states?
- What is a Freedom City and how would it be built?
- When was the last major new city founded in the United States?
- How large is the national housing shortage according to various estimates?
Limits
- The report is a policy proposal, not a map or dataset of specific sites.
- It focuses on federal land managed by the Bureau of Land Management in ten Western states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming.
- The national housing shortage is given as a range of 4 to 8 million homes, based on various estimates.