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.
Sustainable Communities or the Next Urban Renewal?
Published: 2020 | Moira O’Neill, Giulia Gualco-Nelson, Eric Biber | Ecology Law Quarterly Abstract California has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) to address climate change. But in California, the sector that produces the largest share of greenhouse gas…
It’s Time to End Single-Family Zoning
Published: 2020 | Paavo Monkkonen, Michael Lens, and Michael Manville | Journal of the American Planning Association Abstract Local planning in the United States is unique in the amount of land it reserves for detached single-family homes. This privileging of…
Can More Housing Supply Solve the Affordability Crisis? Evidence from a Neighborhood Choice Model
Published: 2020 | Elliot Anenberg, Edward Kung | Federal Reserve Board Abstract We estimate a neighborhood choice model using 2014 American Community Survey data to investigate the degree to which new housing supply can improve housing affordability. In the model,…
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…
Consumer-Lending Discrimination in the FinTech Era
Published: 2019 | Robert Bartlett, Adair Morse, Richard Stanton, Nancy Wallace Abstract Under U.S. fair-lending law, lenders can discriminate against minorities only for creditworthiness. Using an identification under this rule, afforded by the GSEs’ pricing of mortgage credit risk, we…
Building Black Homeownership Bridges: A Five-Point Framework for Reducing the Racial Homeownership Gap
Published: 2019 | Alanna McCargo, Jung Hyun Choi, and Edward Golding | Urban Institute Abstract Homeownership is an important wealth-building source and a foundation for economic stability. Owning a home can provide a stable place to live and remove significant…
Urban Growth and its Aggregate Implications
Published: 2019 | Gilles Duranton, Diego Puga | Public Economics Abstract We develop an urban growth model where human capital spillovers foster entrepreneurship and learning in heterogenous cities. Incumbent residents limit city expansion through planning regulations so that commuting and…
Housing Underproduction in California – Up For Growth
Published: 2019 | Up for Growth Abstract However, this recent imbalance continues a much longer trend in California, where restrictive local development and land-use policies have curtailed housing production for decades. These policies, enacted by local jurisdictions to maintain walkable,…