Houses atop post offices

“The USPS owns over 8,500 properties and leases over 25,000 more. It also needs money.” In a new Brooking Report, Aaron Shroyer, Ben McAdams, and Glen Nuckolls argue we can kill two birds with one stone: the Postal Service should let developers build housing above post offices (or otherwise use their real estate to support housing). They estimate that rebuilding Postal Service real estate with buildings that merely have the same level of density as nearby census block groups could unlock an additional 117,000 housing units in markets with medium-to-high housing demand, and earn nearly a billion dollars a year from the leases. They also point to precedents for this kind of thing, both in the US and abroad. What could be more in tune with abundance than a proposal that simultaneously eases housing shortages and enhances state capacity?