houston the whipping boy. that s a place that doesn t have zoning. it doesn t have regulation. it is not exactly the full flower of urbanism. excuse me. she may not find houston a full flower of urbanism but fewer rules in houston mean that if someone wants to turn their house into a little store like this person did, they can. you can build tall buildings next to shorter ones. they even allow someone to build a house on a beer can. the result lack of zoning. many papers call houston the best city to live and work in. the big real estate web site says the average price of a two bedroom house is 3200,000 dollars in washington it is almost 600,000. zoning isn t the only reason for the price difference that are other factors.