Estimating the External Effects of Subsidized Housing Investment on Property Values

Publication Date: April 2003

Publisher: Furman Center for Real Estate

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

Research Area: Social conditions

Keywords: property values; subsidized housing; Affordable housing

Type: Working Paper

Abstract:

Although housing investment is often promoted as a tool for neighborhood improvement, prior empirical research has failed to provide convincing evidence that subsidized housing investment generates significant external effects. This paper revisits the external effects of subsidized housing investment. With the benefit of a very rich dataset, we use a difference-in-difference specification of a hedonic regression model to estimate the spillover effects of publicly-assisted housing units produced under the New York City Ten Year Plan program.