Publications Tagged ‘renters’
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White Paper
Key Findings on the Affordability of Rental Housing from New York City’s HVS 2008 PDF
Every three years, the U.S. Census Bureau releases the New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey (HVS), which assesses changes in various aspects of New York City’s housing and neighborhoods. The primary goal of the survey is to estimate the rental vacancy rate in the City, but the survey also provides valuable insight into other trends in the housing stock. However, the data are released in a format that is hard to understand without statistical software. In order to make the findings available to a wider audience, we have analyzed the data about New York City’s neighborhoods and compiled this summary of noteworthy trends.
Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. June 2009.
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Article
No Renters in My Suburban Backyard: Land Use Regulation and Rental Housing LINK
Academics and policymakers have argued that the ability of low- and moderate-income families to move into desirable suburban areas is constrained by the high cost of housing. Local zoning and other forms of land use regulation are believed to contribute to increased housing prices by reducing supply and increasing the size of new housing. Suburban restrictions on rental housing are particularly likely to reduce mobility for low-income families. In this paper, I employ an instrumental variables approach to examine the effects of zoning on the quantity and price of rental housing in Massachusetts, using historical municipal characteristics to instrument for current regulations. Results suggest that communities with more restrictive zoning issue significantly fewer building permits for multifamily housing but provide only weak evidence of the effects of regulations on rents. The lack of effects on rents may reflect the low level of multifamily development, while analysis is complicated by development of subsidized housing under the state’s affordable housing law.
Schuetz, Jenny. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. March 2009.
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Article
Tenants: Innocent Victims of the Nation’s Foreclosure Crisis PDF
Renters are innocent victims of the foreclosure crisis, losing their homes through no fault of their own when their landlord goes into foreclosure. Until lately, the national discussion on the foreclosure crisis largely focused on owner-occupied homes, but recent analysis reveals that the crisis is significantly impacting renters across the country. New York University’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy found that in New York City, well over half of all foreclosure filings in 2007 were on two to four family or multi-family buildings, and a growing body of data and anecdotal evidence indicates that the problem is not isolated to New York City; heart wrenching stories of renters losing their homes have appeared in newspapers nationwide.
Vicki Been & Allegra Glashausser. 2 Alb. Gov't L. Rev. 1 (2009). February 2009.
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Chapter
Spillovers and Subsidized Housing: The Impact of Subsidized Rental Housing on Neighborhoods LINK
Rental housing is increasingly recognized as a vital housing option in the United States. Yet government policies and programs continue to grapple with widespread problems, including affordability, distressed urban neighborhoods, poor-quality housing stock, concentrated poverty, and exposure to health hazards in the home. These challenges can be costly and difficult to address. The time is ripe for fresh, authoritative analysis of this important yet often overlooked sector.
Ingrid Gould Ellen. Revisiting Rental Housing (Brookings Institution Press). December 2008.
affordable housing, neighborhoods, renters, subsidized housing
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Working Paper
No Renters in My Suburban Backyard: Land Use Regulation and the Rental Housing Market in MA PDF
For several decades, academics and policymakers have argued that the ability of low- and moderate-income families to move into desirable suburban areas is constrained by the high cost of housing in those areas. Local zoning ordinances and other forms of land use regulation are believed to contribute to increased housing prices by reducing supply and increasing the size and quality of new housing. Restrictions on rental housing in particular are likely to reduce prospects of mobility for low- and moderate-income families. In this paper, I employ an instrumental variables approach to examine the effects of regulations on the quantity and price of rental housing in Massachusetts, using historical municipal characteristics to instrument for current regulations. Results suggest that communities with less restrictive zoning issue significantly more building permits for multifamily housing but do not have significantly lower rents. The lack of differences in rents across communities may reflect spillover effects and regional supply constraints. The analysis of rents may also be confounded by the thinness of the rental market and development of subsidized housing under the state’s affordable housing law.
Schuetz, Jenny. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. June 2007.
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Article
Nonprofit Housing and Neighborhood Spillovers PDF
Nonprofit organizations play a critical role in U.S. housing policy, a role typically justified by the claim that their housing investments produce significant neighborhood spillover benefits. However, little work has actually been done to measure these impacts on neighborhoods. This paper compares the neighborhood spillover effects of city-supported rehabilitation of rental housing undertaken by nonprofit and for-profit developers, using data from New York City.
Ellen, Ingrid Gould, Ioan Voicu. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 25(1). December 2005.
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Working Paper
Nonprofit Housing and Neighborhood Spillovers PDF
Nonprofit organizations play a critical role in U.S. housing policy, a role typically justified by the claim that their housing investments produce significant neighborhood spillover benefits. However, little work has actually been done to measure these impacts on neighborhoods. This paper compares the neighborhood spillover effects of city-supported rehabilitation of rental housing undertaken by nonprofit and for-profit developers, using data from New York City. To measure these benefits, we use increases in neighboring property values, estimated from a difference-in-difference specification of a hedonic regression model. We study the impacts of about 43,000 units of city-supported housing completed during the 1980s and 1990s, and our sample of property transactions includes nearly 300,000 individual sales.
Ellen, Ingrid Gould, Ioan Voicu. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Vol. 25, No. 1, (2006 ). August 2005.
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Working Paper
The Utilization of Rental Housing Assistance By Immigrants in the United States and New York City
Friedman, Samantha, Michael H. Schill, and Emily Rosenbaum. Housing Policy Debate, (1999). July 2005.
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Working Paper
Does Federally Subsidized Rental Housing Depress Neighborhood Property Values? PDF
Few communities welcome subsidized housing, with one of the most commonly voiced fears being reductions in property values. Yet there is little empirical evidence that subsidized housing depresses neighborhood property values. This paper estimates and compares the neighborhood impacts of a broad range of federally-subsidized, rental housing programs, using rich data for New York City and a difference-in-difference specification of a hedonic regression model.
Ellen, Ingrid Gould, Michael H. Schill, Amy Ellen Schwartz, and Ioan Voicu. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Vol. 26, No. 2, (Spring 2007). March 2005.
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Article
Comment on ‘The Effects of Affordable and Multifamily Housing on Market Values of Nearby Homes LINK
Advocates of growth management and smart growth often propose policies that raise housing prices, thereby making housing less affordable to many households trying to buy or rent homes. Such policies include urban growth boundaries, zoning restrictions on multi-family housing, utility district lines, building permit caps, and even construction moratoria. Does this mean there is an inherent conflict between growth management and smart growth on the one hand, and creating more affordable housing on the other? Or can growth management and smart growth promote policies that help increase the supply of affordable housing?
Ingrid Gould Ellen. Growth Management and Affordable Housing: Do They Conflict? . December 2004.