Does Federally Subsidized Rental Housing Depress Neighborhood Property Values?

Publication Date: March 2005

Publisher: Furman Center for Real Estate

Author(s): Ingrid Gould Ellen; Michael H. Schill; Amy Ellen Schwartz; Ioan Voicu

Research Area: Social conditions

Keywords: neighborhoods; property values; renters; subsidized housing

Type: Working Paper

Abstract:

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.