Race, Land Use Regulation, and Housing Affordability

Previous studies have examined the link between land-use regulation and home prices extensively. Yet there are few studies that examine the influence of land-use regulation on housing affordability. Even more uncommon is a focus on the effects of specific types of regulation on individual households, and variations in these effects by racial and ethnic group. Using a cross-sectional regression design analyzing existing Wharton Residential Land Use Regulation Survey data, land use regulation survey data developed by Pendall, Puentes, and Martin (2006), and American Community Survey data, this article estimates the impact of various kinds of exclusionary land use regulation on individual housing affordability by housing tenure and race. We find that mobile home bans have powerful and consistent effects on owner affordability. Affordability for African Americans is especially harmed by multi-family development limits and for Hispanics by restrictions on the pace of housing construction