Monday, January 02, 2006
Regulations impede home construction
In a new study due to be released this Thursday, Harvard economics Professor Edward Glaeser blames high Boston housing prices on land-use regulations that are "significant barriers to housing construction." Such regulations include overly restrictive wetlands and septic rules, prohibitions on irregularly shaped lots, and growth caps that limit the number of permits that a city will grant each year.
Glaeser is the co-author of a previous report linking unaffordable housing to zoning regulations as well as many other fascinating reports. His new report will be published by the Rappaport Institute, a real estate think tank, and should be available on either Rappaport's web site or Glaeser's own web page if not both by this Friday. It may also be available from the Pioneer Institute, which apparently co-sponsored the research.
In the meantime, this Boston Globe article provides a preview of the report. According to the article, Glaeser surveyed 187 communities in the Boston area, not including Boston itself, and found that they granted more than 170,000 housing permits in the 1960s, but only 84,000 in the 1990s. If they had continued to grant the higher number of permits, Glaeser estimates that median housing costs today would be $276,000 rather than the actual cost of $432,000.
Glaeser is quick to say that he does not advocate "the Houston solution," which he erroneously describes as "unfettered growth with no attention to the environment." But aside from that perhaps politically necessary statement, it sounds like a good report.
Glaeser is the co-author of a previous report linking unaffordable housing to zoning regulations as well as many other fascinating reports. His new report will be published by the Rappaport Institute, a real estate think tank, and should be available on either Rappaport's web site or Glaeser's own web page if not both by this Friday. It may also be available from the Pioneer Institute, which apparently co-sponsored the research.
In the meantime, this Boston Globe article provides a preview of the report. According to the article, Glaeser surveyed 187 communities in the Boston area, not including Boston itself, and found that they granted more than 170,000 housing permits in the 1960s, but only 84,000 in the 1990s. If they had continued to grant the higher number of permits, Glaeser estimates that median housing costs today would be $276,000 rather than the actual cost of $432,000.
Glaeser is quick to say that he does not advocate "the Houston solution," which he erroneously describes as "unfettered growth with no attention to the environment." But aside from that perhaps politically necessary statement, it sounds like a good report.
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