scholarly journals Is Housing Unaffordable? Why Isn't It More Affordable?

2004 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 191-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M Quigley ◽  
Steven Raphael
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Housing Affordability ◽  
Housing Quality ◽  
Land Use Regulation ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Rental Market ◽  
The Past ◽  
Poor Households ◽  
The U.S

This paper reviews trends in housing affordability in the U.S. over the past four decades. There is little evidence that owner-occupied housing has become less affordable. In contrast, there have been modest increases in the fraction of income that the median renter household devotes to housing. We find pronounced increases in the rent burdens for poor households. We explore the low-income rental market in more detail, analyzing the relative importance of changes in the income distribution, in housing quality, land use regulation, and zoning in affecting rent burdens. We also sketch out some policies that might improve housing affordability.

The Housing Triangulation: A Discourse on Quality, Affordability and Lifestyles in India

2011 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 16-26
Author(s):  
Urmi Sengupta
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Transition Process ◽  
Housing Affordability ◽  
Housing Quality ◽  
Housing Sector ◽  
Structural Patterns ◽  
Class Bias ◽  
Housing Standards

Since 1991 with the advent of globalization and economic liberalisation, basic conceptual and discursive changes are taking place in housing sector in India. The new changes suggest how housing affordability, quality and lifestyles reality is shifting for various segments of the population. Such shift not only reflects structural patterns but also stimulates an ongoing transition process. The paper highlights a twin impetus that continue to shape the ongoing transition: expanding middle class and their wealth - a category with distinctive lifestyles, desires and habits and corresponding ‘market defining’ of affordable housing standards - to articulate function of housing as a conceptualization of social reality in modern India. The paper highlights the contradictions and paradoxes, and the manner in which the concept of affordability, quality and lifestyles are embedded in both discourse and practice in India. The housing ‘dream’ currently being packaged and fed through to the middle class population has an upper middle class bias and is set to alienate those at the lower end of the middle-and low-income population. In the context of growing agreement and inevitability of market provision of ‘affordable housing’, the unbridled ‘market-defining’ of housing quality and lifestyles must be checked.

scholarly journals How the pandemic has affected Turkish housing affordability: why the housing running cost is so important

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Seyda Emekci
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Income Group ◽  
Housing Affordability ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Past ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Running Cost ◽  
Policy Strategies ◽  
The One

AbstractThe housing affordability problem in Turkey is not new. With the pandemic increasing pressure on the economy, the issue of housing affordability problem has reached an alarming level. The problem has been deepened not only as a result of the pandemic but also due to the incomplete and wrong policies from the past. This paper on the one hand aims to examine how the pandemic has exacerbated the problem; on the other hand, it purposes to reveal that the problem has been handled incorrectly and how weaknesses in the policy strategies contribute to this problem through a case study of the low-income group. The article also focuses on how architects can contribute to solving this problem.

Zoning and affordability: A reply to Rodríguez-Pose and Storper

Urban Studies ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 004209802091033 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Manville ◽  
Michael Lens ◽  
Paavo Monkkonen
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Metropolitan Areas ◽  
Housing Prices ◽  
Housing Affordability ◽  
Housing Construction ◽  
Land Use Regulation ◽  
Housing Production ◽  
Housing Density ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Housing Outcomes

Would increasing allowable housing densities in expensive cities generate more housing construction and make housing more affordable? In a provocative article, Andrés Rodríguez-Pose and Michael Storper survey the evidence and answer no. Restrictions on housing density, they contend, do not substantially influence housing production or price. They further argue that allowing more density in growing metropolitan areas would only improve housing outcomes for the affluent, and most likely harm the poor. We take issue with both of these contentions. While uncertainties remain in the study of housing prices and land use regulation, neither theory nor evidence warrant dispensing with zoning reform, or concluding that it could only be regressive. Viewed in full, the evidence suggests that increasing allowable housing densities is an important part of housing affordability in expensive regions.

The influence of land use regulation on the probability that low-income neighbourhoods will gentrify

Urban Studies ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 004209802094016
Author(s):  
Susane Leguizamon ◽  
David Christafore
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Housing Prices ◽  
Housing Price ◽  
Lower Probability ◽  
Land Use Regulation ◽  
Lower Income ◽  
Housing Projects ◽  
The Us ◽  
Price Growth

The divergence in housing price growth in the US in coastal cities relative to inland cities has been thought to occur, in large part, due to severe housing regulations and restrictions on development. Researchers have posited that this trend implies that these heavily regulated cities are experiencing higher incidences of gentrification. However, the gentrification of lower-income communities may be negatively influenced by restrictive regulations rather than positively, as is the case with overall housing price growth. This may occur if restrictions make it more difficult to improve housing structures and engage in new housing projects. We use data from over 12,000 census tracts to analyse the relationship between land use regulations and the probability an area will undergo gentrification in the years 2000 to 2010. By separating the influence of higher levels of regulation on overall housing price growth from the likelihood that a lower-income neighbourhood will gentrify, we find that regulation has opposing forces. While increased levels of regulation are associated with an almost 10% greater increase in overall housing prices, they are also associated with a three to four percentage-point lower probability that a lower-income tract will experience gentrification, contrary to previous conclusions.

The Microfinance Promise

1999 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 1569-1614 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Morduch
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Financial Sustainability ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Group Lending ◽  
Joint Liability ◽  
The Past ◽  
Poor Households ◽  
Economic And Social Impacts ◽  
Policy Discussion

In the past decade, microfinance programs have demonstrated that it is possible to lend to low-income households while maintaining high repayment rates—even without requiring collateral. The programs promise a revolution in approaches to alleviating poverty and spreading financial services, and millions of poor households are served globally. A growing body of economic theory demonstrates how new contractual forms offer a key to microfinance success—particularly the use of group-lending contracts with joint liability. For the most part, however, high repayment rates have not translated into profits, and studies of impacts on poverty yield a mixed picture. In describing emerging tensions, the paper highlights the diversity of innovative mechanisms beyond group-lending contracts, the measurement of financial sustainability, the estimation of economic and social impacts, the costs and benefits of subsidization, and the potential to reduce poverty through savings programs rather than just credit. The promise of microfinance has pushed far ahead of the evidence, and an agenda is put forward for addressing critical empirical gaps and sharpening the terms of policy discussion.

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