THE EFFECT OF PROPERTY TAX RATE DIFFERENTIALS ON SINGLE-FAMILY HOUSING STARTS IN WISCONSIN, 1978–1989*

ABSTRACT. A pooled cross-section time-series approach is used to test the hypothesis that differences in property tax rates between and across regions exert an excise-tax impact on housing starts. Synthesizing the research regarding property tax incidence on housing markets and residential location with that of regional housing studies, an empirical model that allows for inter- and intraregional influences on housing starts is developed. Using county data from Wisconsin over a twelve-year span, I find that property tax rate differentials have a negative effect on the construction of single-family houses.     

LAND BANK 2.0: AN EMPIRICAL EVALUATION

In 2009, Cuyahoga County, Ohio (Cleveland and 58 suburbs), established a land bank to acquire low‐value properties, mitigate blighted housing, and slow the decline of property values. This empirical study evaluates the effectiveness of the land bank by estimating spatially corrected hedonic price models using sales near the land‐bank homes. The land bank reduces the negative externalities of the properties it acquires. Its largest impact is the preservation of equity in unsold homes. We also estimate the recovered value for homes sold during the study period and the property tax revenue that may have been forgone, absent the land bank.     

TRAFFIC EXTERNALITIES AND SINGLE-FAMILY HOUSE PRICES*

ABSTRACT. This study is the first to lend empirical support to the common belief that traffic intensity affects property values. Using a standard hedonic pricing model, this paper investigates the price effects on housing of traffic within a neighborhood. Results using data on single-family housing transactions for two different locations in a medium-sized city show a substantial negative price effect of traffic externalities. The magnitude of the effect is shown to be location specific.     

Immigrants and homelessness—at risk in Canada's outer suburbs

Homelessness is a risk for growing numbers of immigrants. Largely as a result of low incomes, newcomers are more likely than the Canadian-born to spend over 50 percent of total household income on housing costs. Many newcomers suffer 'hidden homelessness'. They do not use shelters and other services, but share accommodation, couch-surf and rely on their social contacts for temporary and precarious housing. The adverse impact of low incomes on the housing experiences of Canadian newcomers is exacerbated in the outer suburbs of metropolitan areas where the supply of affordable housing is limited. This study explores the social backgrounds and housing experiences of immigrant households that are vulnerable to homelessness in outer suburbs through analysis of special tabulations from the 2001 census for York Region and interviews with representatives from local community organisations serving immigrant and low-income populations. The initial findings confirm that a high proportion of newcomers in York Region are at-risk of homelessness during the first 10 years of residence in Canada. Although renters are more vulnerable than homeowners, a substantial percentage of newcomers who are homeowners pay more than 30 percent of their total income on housing costs. The shortage of affordable rental housing in the outer suburbs exacerbates the impacts of low incomes, immigration status, household size and ethnoracial identities on immigrants' housing.     

Impacts of an Iron and Steel Plant on Residential Property Values

The hedonic price method is used to estimate the relationship between residential property values and proximity to an integrated iron and steel plant located in the outskirts of Gijón, a city in the north of Spain. Empirical results suggest that there is a statistically significant negative relationship between housing values and the distance from the iron and steel plant. From a partial equilibrium analysis, increasing the distance from the plant, decreasing plant production or dismantling the plant would lead to an increase in the value of the housing units. The results show as well that the housing units located nearest to the factory would be the most favoured by applying the aforementioned changes.     

Rising Second Home Numbers in Rural Ireland: Distribution,Drivers and Implications

This article highlights a marked growth in the number of second homes in Ireland since the mid-1990s, which is concentrated in the rural and coastal parts of the peripheral Border, Midwest, Southeast, Southwest and West regions, together with parallel growth in the number of long-term vacant dwellings in these regions. These phenomena are linked to economic and population growth, the “laissez faire” nature of land use planning in rural Ireland, the generous fiscal treatment of housing, as well as tax incentives to encourage house building in economically marginal areas. The social and economic impacts of these dwelling on individual localities vary, depending on their number, usage patterns and the nature of the local economy and housing market. However, their environmental consequences are largely negative as is their impact on the national economy and on the economies of those regions where vacant dwellings are concentrated. Thus, our research questions the value of housing-led rural development, as they can result in excessive output of vacant and second homes and highlights the importance of adequately resourcing planning authorities if the worst excesses of rural housing overdevelopment are to be avoided.     

TAX AND FINANCIAL POLICIES FOR THE HOUSING MARKET OF THE 1980s

The imbalance in the age structure of the U.S. population has created conditions for heavy demand and consequently pressures for rising relative prices in the market for owner-occupied single family housing in the 1980s and 1990s. Working in reverse, the unbalanced demographics may well lead to the falling relative price of housing around 2010, the period in which the baby boom generation will be retiring and may wish to liquidate its housing investment. Changes in housing policies during the 1980s could help offset the anticipated costs associated with the swings in demand pressures in the housing market over the next forty years. Current favorable tax and financial policies toward homeownership encourage both the overconsumption of housing and the overinvestment in housing as a retirement asset. Tax and financial policies could be changed to neutralize the attractiveness of owner-occupied single family units relative to alternative types of housing units. To avoid overbuilding for the future, policies could encourage the efficient use of existing housing resources through intergenerational turnover, upgrading of units and neighborhood improvement, and condominium-style conversion of multiunit structures from rental to owner-occupancy. Finally, tax and financial policies toward investment could encourage the baby boom generation to diversify its retirement assets outside of housing.     

External validity of hedonic price estimates: Heterogeneity in the price discount associated with having Black and Hispanic neighbors

We examined the hedonic price of neighborhood racial composition across a sample of 180 US housing markets and compared heterogeneity in results. Statistically significant estimated price elasticities calculated at the mean ranged from ?0.61 to 0.2 and ?0.26 to 0.21, for increases in Black and Hispanic neighborhood proportion, respectively. Hedonic price discounts for Black neighborhoods were greater when land supply was more inelastic, when the land value share of the housing cost was greater, and in the southern portion of the United States. Hedonic price discounts associated with Hispanic neighborhoods exhibited no patterns relative to geography or housing supply factors.     

THE IMPACT OF RENT CONTROLS IN NON-WALRASIAN MARKETS: AN AGENT-BASED MODELING APPROACH

ABSTRACT.  We use agent-based models to consider rent ceilings in non-Walrasian housing markets, where bargaining between landlord and tenant leads to exchange at a range of prices. In the non-Walrasian setting agents who would be extramarginal in the Walrasian setting frequently are successful in renting, and actually account for a significant share of the units rented. This has several implications. First, rent ceilings above the Walrasian equilibrium price (WEP) can affect the market outcome. Second, rent ceilings that reduce the number of units rented do not necessarily reduce total market surplus. Finally, the distributional impact of rent controls differs from the Walrasian setting.     

SEQUENTIAL SALES OF SIMILAR ASSETS: THE LAW OF ONE PRICE AND REAL ESTATE

ABSTRACT The housing literature largely overlooks the price evolution of similar assets sold sequentially, even though such sales often occur with new residential developments. The law of one price implies no persistent price pattern for identical assets sold sequentially. Nonetheless, the auction and nonauction literatures reveal conditions leading to sales sequence effects on prices. This paper examines price evolution in the condominium market where similar units are sold sequentially in a setting with minimal consumption risk. The results indicate no pervasive sequence–price relationship for sequential sales of similar property units.     

Use of repeat house sales to measure changes since the early‐ or mid‐1980s in two inner‐city neighbourhoods in Windsor,Ontario

Changes in the prices of homes and the reasons for those changes may be more accurately predicted from repeat sales of the same homes after controlling for their changed attributes and differences in time between their sales and resales. This paper analyzes 346 of 583 sold houses in the Glengarry neighbourhood in Windsor, Ontario, that were sold more than once between 1981 and mid‐2017, and a corresponding 414 of 737 sold houses in the city's Wellington‐Crawford neighbourhood, sold more than once between 1986 and mid‐2017. After comparing types of resold homes with once‐sold ones, a repeat sales model predicts a first period of increasing annual percentage changes in resale prices compared to sale prices during the 1980s, followed by a second period of stagnation and possible decreases until 2011, and then increases during a third period after that. In addition, changes in resold homes’ attributes of the dwelling unit and neighbourhood are a second type of neighbourhood change in two inner‐city neighbourhoods during the past 30 or more years.     

HOUSING CONSTRUCTION, VACANCY CHAINS, AND RESIDENTIAL MOBILITY IN WINDSOR

R esidential m obility is one of the most important forces underlying changes in the social composition and physical characteristics of urban areas (Rossi 1955, p. 2). Consequently, numerous studies on residential migration have been carried out in order to comprehend this process better and thereby aid in the assessment of migration theories and in the development of appropriate models. Mobility studies have examined the characteristics of outmigration areas and households, motivations to move, satisfaction achieved through relocation, and the impact of residential changes. However, as Maher (1974) points out, previous analyses are incomplete in that they tend to focus on the demand characteristics of residential relocation and to omit the supply side of the process, the available housing stock. This study attempts to rectify this omission by considering the provision of newly constructed single-family detached housing in Windsor and the resultant migration patterns and processes through vacancy chain analysis. The demand and supply concepts of residential mobility are examined with regard to the housing multiplier generated by different locations and values of new homes, the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of households at various positions in the turnover process, the reasons for moving, and the spatial patterns of residential moves originating from new housing. In addition, by focusing on a specific form of housing the study avoids problems which may arise from aggregate level analyses of households adjusting to new housing opportunities.     

The Political Economy of Housing Investment in the Short-Term Rental Market: Insights from Urban Portugal

Short-term rentals (STRs) emerged as holiday accommodations, disrupting the hospitality industry in the decade before COVID-19. Mainstream explanations for their growth revolved around digital tourism platforms like Airbnb as market disruptors and the sharing economy rationale. At the same time, critical scholars explored the capitalisation of greater rent gaps in urban central locations. However, these explanations are insufficient to explain the growth of STRs. We supplement them by building bridges between the urban political economy and the geographies of financialisation through the cases of Lisbon and Porto before the pandemic. The paper focuses on tourism-induced housing investment, taking a closer look at the profile of investors in association with STR property managers in the context of the late-entrepreneurial urban regime. We conclude that tourism development has allowed opportunities for housing financialisation through STR professionalisation, enhancing the allocation of interest-bearing capital in tourism-oriented real estate.     

Inter- and intraregional inequality in a spatial economy

In this paper, we develop a three-region economic geography model with workers of heterogeneous skills and mobility rates to consider how first-nature, regional differences impact both inter- and intraregional inequality. In our model, the skill premium within a region summarizes both the degree of intraregional inequality between mobile, skilled workers and immobile, unskilled workers and the interregional inequality through differences in the welfare of unskilled workers across regions. Regions with the highest skill premium have the greatest degree of intraregional inequality and provide the lowest level of welfare to unskilled workers, relative to other regions. We find that the skill premium will be higher in regions with a greater supply of unskilled labor, lower supply of housing, or are more remote. An increase in a region's housing supply or centrality will lower intraregional inequality and raise the welfare of the local, unskilled workforce. However, the magnitude of these changes are declining in the initial number of skilled workers in the region. The model is extended to consider imperfectly elastic housing supply. The larger the price elasticity of housing, the larger the range of values, such that more populated regions will host a disproportionate share of skilled workers, have lower levels of intraregional inequality, and provide higher levels of welfare for unskilled workers.     

A Housing Crisis,a Failed Law,and a Property Conflict: The US Urban Speculation Tax

In 1978 the local government in the District of Columbia approved a measure to tax up to 70% of the profits made on residential speculation. The tax was the first of its kind in the USA. But, it was quickly overturned and deemed by supporters and opponents a failure. Based on 10 months of archival research and interviews in Washington, DC, this paper examines how property rights became a narrative barrier that tax supporters could not overcome. By narrative barrier, I mean the set of rules that shaped how speculation was discussed. Tax supporters did not publicly convey a counter‐hegemonic vision of how tenure security and economic wealth could be achieved for black residents through means other than private ownership and real estate investment. This paper contributes to understandings of housing markets, housing crises, and intersections between housing justice and property rights.     

Buying and Borrowing in Adelaide: Mortgage Commitments of Home Buyers, 1986

In April 1986 housing finance allocation procedures were deregulated. The impact of this decision on levels of finance borrowed by households was assessed for 2562 buyers of houses and home units in the Adelaide Statistical Division during May and June 1986. Sales price and mortgage data suggest two tendencies influencing the relationship between price and mortgage. Firstly, low price purchasers have small deposits and borrow heavily to effect their purchase. Secondly, high price buyers, with large deposits, are nevertheless taking out large loans to finance housing. Levels of gearing show market socio-economic bias, low cost buyers being more likely to be overcommitted.     

CANADA'S ALL RIGHT: THE LIVES AND LOYALTIES OF IMMIGRANT FAMILIES IN A TORONTO SUBURB, 1900–1945

Before World War II, many immigrant workers in North America lived in industrial and residential suburbs. The early history of a residential suburbo of Toronto, Ontario, shows that, initially, homes were modest and public services were absent. Men worked long hours, commuted far and built the family home. Women strove hard to keep house and raise a family in unserviced homes. Children helped out, and played in the accessible bush. Self-provisioning was common, and early opportunities to acquire homes and establish businesses were good. Community-building created a strong neighbourhood identity. At first, settlers felt loyal to Britain, compared their experience with the situation back home, and concluded that Canada was 'all right. The Depression brought working-class loyalities to the fore and prompted many to become more critical of the Canadian status quo. This story raises questions about the nature of the immigrant working-class experience in North American cities in the early twentieth century.     

User-controlled Housing: Desirability and Feasibility

User-controlled housing is defined as a process in which the residents—not only professionals and developers—make significant decisions regarding the design and the construction or renovation of their homes. This paper argues that it is relevant to and should be commonly used in formal systems of housing in the developed countries. It draws support for its arguments from empirical evidence, primarily from Israel and the Netherlands. Much of the evidence is related to housing upgrading by moderate-income and middle-income households, which was found to be highly desirable from individual and public points of view. The paper recommends to decision-makers and planners to facilitate user-controlled housing and to make it an ordinary part of developing new neighbourhoods and renovating old ones.     

Against the ‘tyranny’ of single-family dwelling: insights from Christiania at 40

Ownership of a single-family dwelling remains the dominant aspiration in market-led economies. In a hyper-privatised landscape, it is widely assumed that people will not share housing except in extraordinary circumstances. There is nevertheless a long and rich history of countercultural groups who imagine and practise alternative forms of shared housekeeping and collaborative dwelling. This article draws on first-hand observations of daily life from the countercultural community of Christiania, in the Danish capital of Copenhagen, at a critical moment in a 40-year history of state-threatened ‘normalization’. Christiania is an intriguing lens through which to re-imagine affordable, adaptable, gender democratic housing and urban structure: it reveals how sharing, mutuality and innovation intersect at multiple scales of homemaking and community governance. These insights are relevant for provoking new thinking about dwelling and mutuality in the context of a deepening crisis in housing provision and access across Europe.     

Property and Propriety: Jewish Landlords in Early Twentieth-Century Toronto

Drawing on literatures on the social construction of place and identity, and on the changing nature of urban property ownership, this paper examines Jewish immigrants to Toronto as housing landlords, situating their activities in the context of wider changes in the city's housing market and of their needs to raise capital, achieve status and foster group identity. Using archival and newspaper evidence to reconstruct the behaviour of individual landlords, it is argued that ownership of inner-city property fulfilled numerous functions, especially related to other aspects of business proprietorship, but that it also accentuated the geographical concentration of poorer Jews, with critical implications for their relations with non-Jews.