Metropolitan areas in the US are spreading out too much, but some states are trying to stop this by encouraging more compact urban growth. Smart growth is a new way of developing cities that can help make regions more condensed. Housing is a big part of this, so it's important to have policies that support denser housing. This article looks at how housing can help smart growth by focusing on the market for denser housing, land use issues, and ways to finance higher density housing. There's not a lot of research on how smart growth and housing are connected, so this article is trying to fill that gap.