Washington doesn't need to rezone a single parcel to reshape where America builds houses. It only needs to fund a road.
The mechanism is straightforward and chronically underappreciated: federal Surface Transportation Block Grants and RAISE grants — administered through the Federal Highway Administration — fund arterial road extensions, interchange improvements, and new connector routes in counties that sit just beyond existing suburban density. When that money flows, previously stranded rural and exurban parcels become buildable. When it stalls — because an administration freezes discretionary grant disbursements, redirects funds, or slow-walks approvals — the land pipeline tightens and the builders already positioned on cheap dirt benefit from reduced competition for finished lots.