[Assess learners' ability to analyze how municipal zoning regulations and public transit investments influence housing affordability and socioeconomic segregation across U.S. metropolitan regions. Tasks: interpret empirical indicators (housing price trends, affordability ratios, segregation indices, transit accessibility), evaluate causal mechanisms (exclusionary zoning, land-use constraints, transit-oriented development), critique empirical methods and regression outputs, design comparative case studies or policy scenarios, and recommend equitable interventions with expected distributional impacts.]