In California, legislation to streamline housing production and to fund the construction of deed-restricted affordable housing often requires builders to pay “prevailing wages” to the construction workers who work on the resulting project. These requirements are based on the idea…
Sharpening the Pencil: How Smart Policy Can Reduce the High Cost of Homebuilding
How much does it cost to build new housing? And are these costs aligned with what the market will bear for rents, or broad goals of housing affordability? In the world of housing contractors and developers, the term for a…
The Price of Inclusion: Evidence from Housing Developer Behavior
Published: 2020 | Evan Soltas Abstract In many U.S. cities, incentives and regulations lead developers to build mixed-income housing. How cost-effective are these policies? I study take-up of a tax incentive in New York City using a model in which…
From Copenhagen to Tokyo
Published: 2020 | Sarah Karlinsky, Paul Peninger, Cristian Bevington | SPUR Abstract The selected case studies demonstrate a breadth of approaches that address both supply and demand challenges for housing in its entirety, as well as affordable housing more specifically.…
The Hard Costs of Construction: Recent Trends in Labor and Materials Costs for Apartment Buildings in California
Published: 2020 | Hayley Raetz, Teddy Forscher, Elizabeth Kneebone, Carolina Reid | Terner Center Abstract Against the backdrop of a statewide housing crisis, affordable and marketrate developers have seen increasing development costs, which can hinder the feasibility of new projects…
The Costs of Affordable Housing Production: Insights from California’s 9% Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program
Published: 2020 | Carolina Reid | Terner Center Abstract The research shows that hard construction costs—specifically the costs of material and labor—are the primary driver of rising development costs.
Built-Out-Cities? How California Cities Restrict Housing Production Through Prohibition and Process
Published: 2020 | Paavo Monkkonen, Michael Lens, and Michael Manville | Terner Center for Housing Innovation Abstract Given high rents and prices in California, housing production is at a relative historic low. Scholarship has connected restrictive land use regulations to…
Inclusionary Zoning Hurts More Than It Helps
Published: 2019 | Emily Hamilton | Mercatus Institute Abstract Inclusionary zoning is popular among policymakers for two reasons. First, it appears “free.” It produces affordable housing units without an outlay of tax dollars. Second, it allows policymakers to appear as…
Is inclusionary zoning creating less affordable housing?
Published: 2018 | Emily Hamilton | Strong Towns
The Economic Implications of Housing Supply
Published: 2018 | Edward Glaeser, Joseph Gyourko | The Journal of Economic Prespectives Abstract In this essay, we review the basic economics of housing supply and the functioning of US housing markets to better understand the distribution of home prices,…