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Housing References and Experts

Here is an annotated bibliography on the relationship between land-use regulation and housing prices, along with the email addresses of the authors. These papers show that housing affordability problems that afflict some urban areas but not others are due to the level of land-use regulation in those areas.

Does Sprawl Reduce the Black/White Housing Consumption Gap?
Author: Dr. Matthew Kahn (Tufts University)
Citation: Housing Policy Debate 12(1): 77-86
Summary: Census data show that low-density ("sprawled") regions are more affordable and have less of a homeownership gap between blacks and whites.
Quote: "In sprawled areas, black households consume larger units and are more likely to own their homes than black households living in less sprawled areas."
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The Impact of Zoning on Housing Affordability
Authors: Dr. Edward Glaesser (Harvard) and Dr. Joseph Gyourko (Wharton School)
Citation: Cambridge, MA: Harvard Institute of Economic Research, 2002, 37 pp.
Summary: The U.S. is not suffering from a nationwide housing affordability crisis, but unaffordable housing in some regions is strongly associated with the level of land-use regulation in those regions.
Quote: "If policy advocates are interested in reducing housing costs, they would do well to start with zoning reform."
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Smart Growth and Its Effects on Housing Markets: The New Segregation
Author: Dr. Randall Pozdena (QuantEcon, Inc.)
Citation: Portland, OR: QuantEcon, 2002, 34 pp.
Summary: If Portland's growth policies had been applied nationwide for the last ten years, more than a quarter-million minority families who now own their own homes would not have been able to afford to buy those homes.
Quote: "It is apparent both from theory and the available data that restricting the supply of development sites is bound to raise home prices, everything else being equal. Insidiously, the burden of site-supply restrictions will fall disproportionately on poor and minority families."
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Smart Growth, Housing Costs, and Homeownership
Authors: Wendell Cox (publicpurpose.com) and Dr. Ron Utt (Heritage Foundation)
Citation: Washington, DC: Heritage Foundation, 2001, 24 pp.
Summary: Homeownership is important for personal wealth creation and national economic prosperity, yet smart growth erects barriers to such ownership.
Quote: "For both blacks and Hispanics, the homeownership rate is still below 50 percent and is likely to stay there if housing affordability is impaired by smart-growth policies that rely on boundaries, impact fees, and downzoning."
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San Jose Demonstrates the Limits of Urban-Growth Boundaries and Urban Rail
Author: Randal O'Toole (Thoreau Institute)
Citation: Los Angeles, CA: Reason Foundation, 2003, 23 pp.
Summary: Drawn in 1974, San Jose's urban-growth boundary has made the region one of the nation's least affordable housing markets by driving up land prices to well over $1 million an acre.
Quote: "According to Coldwell Banker, a 2,200-square-foot, four-bedroom home that would cost $160,000 to $180,000 in Las Vegas or Houston costs nearly $630,000 in San Jose and even more in other Silicon Valley communities."
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Smart Growth in Action: Housing Capacity and Development in Ventura County
Authors: William Fulton (Solimar Research Group), Chris Williamson (Solimar Research Group), Kathleen Mallory (consultant), and Jeff Jones (Solimar Research Group)
Citation: Los Angeles, CA: Reason Foundation, 2001, 46 pp.
Summary: Measures passed in Ventura County aimed at protecting open space and farms will lead to a huge shortage of housing in the next decade.
Quote: "Significant deficiencies exist in the capacity of existing planning systems to accommodate rational planning goals."
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Smart Growth and Housing Affordability: Evidence from Statewide Planning Laws
Authors: Dr. Sam Staley (Buckeye Institute) and Leonard C. Gilroy (Reason Foundation)
Citation: Los Angeles, CA: Reason Foundation, 2001, 59 pp.
Summary: Assesses the effects of statewide planning on housing prices in Florida, Oregon, and Washington.
Quote: Housing affordability "eroded in all three states after 1993 while affordability improved for the nation throughout the 1990s."
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Urban-growth Boundaries and Housing Affordability: Lessons from Portland
Authors: Dr. Sam Staley (Buckeye Institute) and Dr. Gerard Mildner (Portland State University)
Citation: Los Angeles, CA: Reason Foundation, 1999, 16 pp.
Summary: After growth controls were implemented in Portland and in Napa County, California, housing production fell and housing prices soared.
Quote: "Growth boundaries encourage consumers to trade off land for larger homes with fewer open-space amenities such as private yards and reduce their overall quality of life by constraining land supply and contributing to higher land costs."
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An Overview of Research on the Costs of Housing Regulation
Author: Steven F. Hayward (American Enterprise Institute)
Citation: Unpublished
Summary: Reviews more than a dozen studies and books on the relationship between regulation and housing affordability.
Quote: "The large body of research that has accumulated over the last 25 years agrees [that] growth controls lead to sharply higher housing prices [and] lead to land prices rising faster than incomes."
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Issues Associated with the Imposition of Inclusionary Zoning in the Portland Metropolitan Area
Author: Jerald W. Johnson (Johnson-Gardner LLC)
Citation: Portland, OR: Hobson Johnson & Associates, 1997, 13 pp.
Summary: Inclusionary zoning would reduce housing costs for a few low-income people at the expense of raising housing costs for everyone else.
Quote: "The primary intent of inclusionary zoning is to increase the inventory of affordable housing. The more likely scenario is a reduction in overall housing opportunities for low-income residents."
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The Effects of Subdivision Design on Housing Values: The Case of Alleyways
Author: Dr. Randall S. Guttery (University of North Texas)
Citation: Journal of Real Estate Research, vol. 23, no. 3 (2002), pp. 265-273
Summary: Analyzed more than 1,600 homes in Denton, Texas, and found that alleys (favored by New Urbanists) reduced home values by more than 5 percent.
Quote: "These findings hopefully will influence New Urbanism subdivision designers to reconsider alleyways in favor of traditional suburban parking."
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The Dynamics of Metropolitan Housing Prices
Authors: Dr. G. Donald Jud and Dr. Daniel T. Winkler (both University of North Carolina-Greensboro)
Citation: Journal of Real Estate Research, vol. 23, nos. 1/2 (2002): pp. 29-45
Summary: Analyzed the factors that influence housing price changes in 130 metropolitan areas and found that variations between metro areas were correlated with restrictive growth management policies and limitations on land availability.
Quote: "Local regulatory restrictions impede housing growth, causing a larger appreciation in local housing prices."
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Government Regulation and Changes in the Affordable Housing Stock
Authors: Dr. C. Tsuriel Somerville (University of British Columbia) and Dr. Christopher J. Mayer (Wharton)
Citation: Vancouver, BC: Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate, University of British Columbia, 2002, 32 pp.
Summary: Finds that housing regulation leads to shortages in affordable rental housing for low-income families.
Quote: "The effects of land use regulation are not limited to raising the price of owneroccupied housing and reducing access to homeownership. It also has a clear negative impact on the most vulnerable."
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Collective Private Ownership of American Housing: A Social Revolution in Local Governance
Author: Dr. Robert Nelson (University of Maryland)
Citation: Adopted from a forthcoming book, Privatizing the Neighborhood
Summary: Protective covenants monitored by homeowner associations are an attractive alternative to zoning, bringing governance to a very local level and providing homeowners with security about the future of their neighborhoods. Dr. Nelson proposes a method of transitioning from zoning to such covenants.
Quote: "In the long run municipal zoning in the United States perhaps is best abolished. The existing functions of zoning perhaps instead should be served through private neighborhood associations."
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