Below, please find a list of studies, resources, and news articles published with a national scope.
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Reports
- State of the Nation’s Housing, 2022 (Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies, 2022)
- Report main page
- Link to PDF
- Summary: An analysis of America’s housing market, noting particular headwinds (in this case, rising interest rates, low housing stock), and making tentative predictions about the future (high rates of new building starts indicating some relief in the future), while also examining disparities in housing access by minority households.
- UpForGrowth, 2022 Housing Underproduction in the U.S. (2022).
- Report main page
- Link to PDF
- Summary: Examining American metro areas’ under or over-production of housing, using UFG’s methodology. Excellent analysis of impacts on minority households, connection of climate change to housing, and more.
- Edward M. Bassett, Zoning (1922); retrieved from https://www.russellsage.org, hosted locally
- Link to PDF (hosted on AHA website).
- Summary: Seminal work by “father of zoning” Edward M. Bassett in 1922, examining the practice’s roots in promoting social health and well being, prior to Euclid v. Ambler Decision in 1929. Interesting historical perspective on what zoning was envisioned to accomplish in 1922 that can be compared to zoning of the modern day.
- McKinsey & Company, Why Does Prosperous King County Have a Homelessness Problem? (2020)
- Link to PDF
- Summary: One of the original works studying housing under-supply in King County and its connection to homelessness.
- Edward Glaeser & Joseph Gyourko, The Impact of Building Restrictions on Housing Affordability (2003), Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review Journal
- Link to PDF (NewYork Fed)
- Summary: Examination of the impact of regulations around land use on housing affordability in America. Finds a strong correlation between zoning strictness and price.
- Mark Keightley, An Introduction to the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, 2022, Congressional Research Service
- Link to PDF
- Summary: 5-page summary of the LIHTC program from the national perspective, including funding, allocation methods (to states and developers), and recent changes to the program. Updated annually by the Congressional Research Service.
- New Democrats Coalition, Missing Millions of Homes (2018)
- Link to PDF
- Summary: Report by the New Democrats Coalition, studying national housing climate in 2017 and major drivers of housing under-production and un-affordability. Notes four major “Ls” of housing construction and analyzes each in turn: Labor, Lending, Land, and Lumber (materials cost). Examines contributing factors in each sector that come together to create rural and urban housing affordability shortages.
- Peter Ganong & Daniel Shoag, 2017. “Why Has Regional Income Convergence in the U.S. Declined?” Journal of Urban Economics
- Link to PDF
- Summary: Report examining the impact high cost of living has on local and regional workforce through the lens of skilled and unskilled labor. Concludes that in the last 30 years as cost of living in urban areas has increased, lower-skilled households increasingly do not move there, creating labor shortages and other issues. Notes this is a change from the historical norm where as opportunity (for earnings) rose, labor followed, which is now not the case for lower-skilled households.
- Edward Glaeser & Joseph Gyourko, 2017. “The Economic Implications of Housing Supply“, National Bureau of Economic Research
- Report main page
- Link to PDF
- Summary: Studies the fundamentals of housing supply through the lens of economics. Of note, examines housing price change in the run-up to the 2008 Recession, where in cities with inelastic housing markets (hard to build) prices increased by over 90%, while in elastic markets (easy to build), prices increased by only 20%. Review of other literature finds “…costs and benefits of restricting building generally conclude that the negative externalities are not nearly large enough to justify the costs of [housing] regulation.”
- Albouy et al, 2016. “The Optimal Distribution of Population Across Cities“, National Bureau of Economic Research
- Report main page
- Link to PDF
- Summary: Examines the idea that cities are too large and should seek to limit their size. Finds, in fact, that cities are too small and numerous, forming at a time of maximum benefit to city residents, but at a overall detriment to the region’s benefit, as viewed through the lens of service provision. In effect, examines the free rider problem in city formation.