The objective of this research is to facilitate the shift to more housing diversity through an economic analysis supporting increased density and housing diversity. Municipal-level U.S. Census data is used to explore the interurban relationships between diversity in housing stocks and unemployment rates in 146 mid-size American cities. A measure of diversity, Shannon’s H, is applied to housing stock and found to be strongly associated with lower unemployment for workers over 25 years old after controlling for measures of urban social burden. In contrast to the much-heralded “trade-offs” between environmental quality, social equity, and economic development, these findings suggest that the dense, walkable, low-carbon city, and the economically sustainable city might be the same place.