FolioStart free

Economics · Literature

Research papers on The housing affordability crisis

Recent and highly-cited academic work on the housing affordability crisis, gathered from Semantic Scholar, CrossRef and OpenAlex.

Search all 200M+ papers on this topic, free →Or track new the housing affordability crisis papers automatically as they publish

  2. An affordability crisis in British housing: Dimensions, causes and policy impact

    Glen Bramley · 1994 · Housing Studies · 118 citations

    This article argues that the British housing system experienced a crisis of affordability in the late 1980s and early 1990s, manifested in several distinct ways, and similar to problems experienced in some other countries. A combination of circumstances produced this crisis, including changes in demography, income distribution, housing supply and tenure, but financial deregulation was particularly important. Housing affordability became a more significant policy issue when the impact on the normal functioning of the owner occupier market became severe and when the macro‐economic feedback effects were perceived as serious. A number of specific policy changes resulted from this crisis, some of

    Save this paper

  3. Affordable Housing and City Welfare

    Jack Favilukis, Pierre Mabille, Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh · 2022 · The Review of Economic Studies · 110 citations

    Abstract Housing affordability is the main policy challenge for most large cities in the world. Zoning changes, rent control, housing vouchers, and tax credits are the main levers employed by policymakers. How effective are they at combatting the affordability crisis? We build a dynamic stochastic spatial equilibrium model to evaluate the effect of these policies on the well-being of its citizens. The model endogenizes house prices, rents, construction, labour supply, output, income, and wealth inequality, the location decisions of households within the city as well as inter-city migration. Its main novel features are risk, risk aversion, and incomplete risk-sharing. We calibrate the model t

    Save this paper

  4. Affordable Housing and City Welfare

    Jack Favilukis, Pierre Mabille, Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh · 2019 · National Bureau of Economic Research · 54 citations

    Housing affordability is the main policy challenge for many large cities in the world. Zoning changes, rent control, housing vouchers, and tax credits are the main levers employed by policy makers. But how effective are they at combatting the affordability crisis? We build a new framework to evaluate the effect of these policies on the well-being of its citizens. It endogenizes house prices, rents, construction, labor supply, output, income and wealth inequality, as well as the location decisions of households. Its main novel features are risk, risk aversion, and incomplete risk-sharing. We calibrate the model to the New York MSA, incorporating current zoning and affordable housing policies.

    Save this paper

  5. Assessing post-GFC housing affordability interventions: a qualitative exploration across five international cities

    Steffen Wetzstein · 2019 · International Journal of Housing Policy · 40 citations

    Abstract This paper confronts one of the biggest contemporary public policy conundrums globally; the challenge of decreasing housing affordability for urban residents. Aiming to align the international literature with the multitude of policy responses following the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), the paper explores ‘in-depth’, and via recontextualisation, the policy priorities and strategies designed to combat housing affordability challenges across five international cities from advanced economy countries – Berlin (Germany), Vienna (Austria), Singapore (Singapore), Sydney (Australia) and Auckland (New Zealand). Carefully guided by critical social science and heterodox political economy liter

    Save this paper

  7. Toward Affordable Cities? Critically Exploring the Market-Based Housing Supply Policy Proposition

    Steffen Wetzstein · 2021 · Housing Policy Debate · 31 citations

    This article confronts the global affordable urban housing crisis by critically examining what has arguably become the dominant policy rhetoric in advanced economies: the accelerated market-based housing supply. This approach promotes efficient land and housing markets, fashions an enabling approach to planning, aims to deregulate development and building processes, and seeks to curtail local government and planning systems’ powers. These claims are juxtaposed here with heterodox literature strands, and—utilizing a multicity comparative ethnographical methodology—urban stakeholders’ perspectives in the Australasian housing crisis hotspots of Sydney and Auckland. The findings suggest a conver

    Save this paper

  9. The Affordable Housing Crisis and Social Work

    Frederic G. Reamer · 1989 · Social Work · 30 citations

    An increasing percentage of social workers' clients are facing serious housing problems. Escalating housing costs and an inadequate supply of affordable housing have saddled low- and moderate-income Americans with a burden that is beyond their control. The magnitude and determinants of the current housing crisis are examined. Also, problems concerning the preservation of existing affordable housing, the production of new affordable housing, and rent subsidies are reviewed. Finally, an overview of innovative approaches to addressing housing issues is provided, and the relationship between direct service and housing policy is discussed.

    Save this paper

  12. Housing Policy and Affordable Housing

    Christian A. L. Hilber, Olivier Schöni · 2022 · Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance · 16 citations

    Abstract Lack of affordable housing is a growing and often primary policy concern in cities throughout the world. The main underlying cause for the “affordability crisis,” which has been mounting for decades, is a combination of strong and growing demand for housing in desirable areas in conjunction with tight long-term supply constraints—both physical and man-made regulatory ones. The affordability crisis tends to predominately affect low- and moderate-income households. Increasingly, however, middle-income households—which do not usually qualify for government support—are similarly affected. Policies that aim to tackle the housing affordability issue are numerous and differ enormously acro

    Save this paper

  17. The spatial consequences of the housing affordability crisis in England

    Nikodem Szumilo · 2018 · Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space · 6 citations

    This paper discusses the impact of housing affordability on the spatial distribution of productivity and wages. The key theoretical contribution is to phrase the problem as an issue of the composition (rather than the level) of housing demand and link it to heterogeneous preferences and characteristics of households. Using a simple simulation methodology, the study estimates levels of amenity values and wages that would make current house prices as affordable as they were in 1995 in all English local authority districts. Although average wages would be unlikely to increase if housing was more affordable, productivity across England would probably be higher as the spatial distribution of econ

    Save this paper

  18. Can More Housing Supply Solve the Affordability Crisis? Evidence from a Neighborhood Choice Model

    Elliot Anenberg, Edward Kung · 2018 · Finance and Economics Discussion Series · 6 citations

    We estimate a neighborhood choice model using 2014 American Community Survey data to investigate the degree to which new housing supply can improve housing affordability. In the model, equilibrium rental rates are determined so that the number of households choosing each neighborhood is equal to the number of housing units in each neighborhood. We use the estimated model to simulate how rental rates would respond to an exogenous increase in the number of housing units in a neighborhood. We find that the rent elasticity is low, and thus marginal reductions in supply constraints alone are unlikely to meaningfully reduce rent burdens. The reason for this result appears to be that rental rates a

    Save this paper

  19. Affordable Regulation: New York City Rent Stabilization as Housing Affordability Policy

    Kasey Zapatka, Juliana de Castro Galvao · 2022 · City & Community · 5 citations

    The growing housing affordability crisis is at the center of conversations about U.S. inequality. This paper reconsiders the role of rent stabilization as one important affordability tool. We investigate who is most likely to benefit from rent stabilization, how much non-stabilized renters would save if their units were stabilized, and the extent to which stabilization would reduce rent burden among households. Using New York City Housing Vacancy Survey data and employing logistic and hedonic regression techniques, we show that Hispanic and foreign-born householders are more likely to live in rent-stabilized units and find evidence of both rent savings and rent burden reduction when comparin

    Save this paper

  20. Affordability, Home Ownership and the Middle Class Housing Crisis in Hong Kong

    James Lee · 1994 · Policy & Politics · 5 citations

    While the housing markets in the western world suffer from problems centring around falling demand and negative equities, Hong Kong stands in stark contrast to this development. Rising affluence and conflicting government policy have led to a phenomenal growth in house prices and a general increase in home ownership. This situation has triggered off two different but related social processes. First, home ownership has created substantial wealth and life chances for established home owners and there are indications that social division is being gradually restructured. Second, the same process has also residualised a sector of the middle class – classified as the ‘sandwich class’ in Hong Kong

    Save this paper

  21. Victoria’s 2023 Housing Policy Agenda: Addressing Decades of Neglect or a Missed Opportunity to Reframe Housing Issues and Solutions?

    T. Moore, A. Doyon · 2024 · Urban Policy and Research · 4 citations

    ABSTRACT There is a housing crisis occurring around the world and Australia is not immune. Australian cities are suffering from issues not just around housing supply and affordability, but quality and performance and the housebuilding industry is stretched to capacity. Various levels of government have developed policies to address key housing challenges. We explore the announcements made by the Victorian Government in 2023, and whether these are likely to be sufficient for making significant change; or if it is a missed opportunity to reframe housing issues and solutions. We finish by drawing upon international best practices to demonstrate further opportunities.

    Save this paper

  22. Is Housing Supply an Effective Remedy for Australia's House Price Affordability Trend?

    Christian A. Nygaard · 2025 · Australian Economic Papers · 3 citations

    At policy level, the remedy for the housing affordability trend and crisis experienced in Australia and internationally is increasingly focusing on raising supply above historic levels of output. This Policy Analysis evaluates how effective increased housing supply is and can be in tackling house price affordability trends. A long‐run model of house prices and housing affordability is estimated (1974–2023) to identify the required levels of dwelling output to stabilise and improve the house price to income ratio. Achieving Australian aspirational supply targets would only marginally improve the price–income ratio, and only after 20 years of above average supply. One reason for this is

    Save this paper

  23. Travel sustainability of new build housing in the London region: Can London's Green Belt be developed sustainably?

    Duncan A. Smith · 2025 · Cities · 3 citations

    Although London ’ s high-density compact city planning has largely delivered sustainable development in the urban core, the wider regional challenge is that housing targets have been consistently missed for the last decade, and the lack of supply is exacerbating the housing affordability crisis. Releasing Green Belt land has been cited as a solution. This paper analyses new build development in the London region from 2011 to 2022, and confirms that Green Belt policy needs reform – local authorities in the Green Belt have the lowest housing delivery in the region, and car dependent ‘leap-frog ’ development is occurring beyond the Green Belt boundary. The relaxation of Green Belt restrictions

    Save this paper

  24. Planning reform for affordable housing supply

    Nicole Gurran, Peter Phibbs · 2017 · Planning News · 2 citations

    For many years, it has been thought that Australia's housing affordability crisis reflected supply constraints imposed by the planning system. Policies like urban consolidation - densifying inner areas and containing greenfield development - have been blamed for constraining land supply, while cumbersome, complex, and costly state and local planning processes are thought to discourage housing development and generally add to the costs of home purchase.

    Save this paper

Write your paper with these sources

Folio is the integrity-first research workspace: search 200M+ papers, save sources, and write with citations that format themselves. Free for students and researchers.

Start writing free →