A primer on U.S. housing markets and housing policy

2004 ◽  
Vol 41 (07) ◽  
pp. 41-4152-41-4152
2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Soon ◽  
Consilz Tan

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the housing preference and housing affordability in Malaysian housing markets. There is a lack of research on the gap between supply and demand of houses in this market. Urbanization has increased the demand of houses in urban areas. However, the high demand in residential units increases the housing price which causes the affordability level dropped. Besides, the residences that provided by developers do not meet the expectation of the home buyers. There are three attributes that examined in this research to understand the home buyers’ preference. Design/methodology/approach This paper provides quantitative analysis on the housing affordability and the home buyers’ preference. This paper presents the results on the home buyers’ housing affordability and buying preference on houses. In addition, the study further confirmed the significant relationship between monthly income and type of preferred house, as well as monthly income and range of housing affordability using cross-tabulation analysis. Findings The findings indicated that the housing price in the current market is not affordable by most of the homebuyers and there are certain attributes that important to home buyers which should not be neglected. Research limitations/implications This paper helps to shed light on the planning of Malaysian housing policy especially on the issue of providing affordable housing in urban areas. Practical implications Policymakers shall consider the elements of economics, social acceptance and feasibility of Malaysian housing policies to achieve sustainability in Malaysian housing markets. With the current government’s move to promote housing affordability amongst B40 income groups, local government and housing developers should work together in addressing housing demand in accordance to states and ensure that there is a more targeted housing policy. Social implications With the detailed analysis on the home buyers’ preference, it helps to promote sustainable housing developments in meeting basic housing needs and preference. Originality/value This is the first study to examine relationship between Malaysian housing affordability with monthly income and type of preferred house. In the meantime, the housing affordability is compared with mean housing price and type of perceived affordable house. The paper presented homebuyer’s preference in housing for the consideration of government and housing developers in providing affordable housing.


2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 587-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Gil Mc Cawley

Abstract This Article addresses the recent international trend in development theory and practice towards an “enabling markets” approach in housing policy. This approach delegates to housing markets the responsibility of providing affordable housing and therefore limits the role of government to stimulating the private sector through targeted subsidies. I ask whether an enabling markets policy constitutes an adequate regulatory strategy for the provision of sustainable housing solutions for the urban poor. I explore this question through an in-depth case study of Chile’s housing policy regime, which was a pioneer in the implementation of an enabling markets strategy; for over four decades, successive governments have been able to provide access to housing to a vast portion of low-income residents, in the context of a regulatory framework that favors private real estate development. However, this success story is marred by an important failure. Through its market-based regime, Chile has routinely clustered low-income families on cheap land, usually located at the periphery of the country’s urban centers, and often in areas with poor public and private services. The main argument I present in this Article is that Chile’s commitment towards an enabling markets regulatory regime has helped to reinforce the pattern of urban exclusion, and has prevented the government from experimenting with alternative policy strategies that may be more effective in promoting inclusionary housing. The main limitation of the enabling markets strategy is that it assumes that the delivery of targeted subsidies will generate an adequate supply of affordable housing for the low-income sector. The Chilean experience shows that this assumption is false, because subsidies are rarely sufficient to enable beneficiaries to compete for well-located housing, while private companies have strong incentives to agglomerate low-income housing in the least desirable urban areas. I argue that, in order to promote urban inclusion, governments need to experiment with an alternative policy strategy that I call a “planning housing markets” approach, which involves using land-use governance mechanisms to ensure that low-income housing is fairly distributed within cities.


1982 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 1195-1210 ◽  
Author(s):  
V Kreibich ◽  
A Petri

Locational behaviour in urban agglomerations has to be analyzed in the context of constrained housing markets, where households with low or medium incomes have to deal with serious and varied constraints when they consider a move. Given the background of the housing market in West German conurbations, conceptual and methodological deficiencies of traditional migration research are pointed out. Except for a few studies, it has been restricted to moves and to completed moves. Immobility as a dominant strategy of locational behaviour has not even been considered. By means of standardized shortview surveys, the complexity of the decisionmaking process as a whole has been largely ignored. Individual preferences have been emphasized whereas objective housing market conditions and impacts of planning and housing policy have been neglected. In a comprehensive study on locational behaviour in the Stuttgart conurbation a new approach has been applied, with a panel of households investigated over a period of four years by use of in-depth interviews and qualitative methods of analysis. The context of housing and planning policy and of the residential environment is described; and the first results of the project, which is still going on, are reported. They illustrate the extent of immobile strategies of locational behaviour and the dominance of locational decision situations with a small number of choices and numerous constraints. A concluding evaluation of some of the instruments of the quite elaborate German housing policy indicates that the housing needs of the majority of households demanding or living in rented flats are still largely neglected.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Pettit ◽  
Laura Crommelin ◽  
Andrea Sharam ◽  
Kath Hulse

This study examined disruptive digital technologies, investigating their potential for reshaping housing markets and reconfiguring housing policy. It provides housing policy makers and practitioners with a nuanced understanding of how technology is already restructuring housing markets and affecting housing assistance programs, as well as insights into likely future developments.


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