Income distribution and the residential density gradient

Journal of Urban Economics, 1980

Spatial variations in income have not been adequately accounted for in urban density regressions. Estimating equations incorporating household income are derived in a monocentric urban model. The technique used also yields an estimate of the income elasticity of demand for housing, found to be less than one.

1997

This paper examines the role of U.S. housing-related tax expenditures in creating incentives for decentralization and encouraging residential sorting by income and central city decline. Tax expenditures associated with the deductibility of mortgage interest and property taxes make housing less expensive relative to other goods and, hence, increase the quantity of housing and residential land purchased and lower the density of urban areas. Because the tax expenditures increase with income and the consumption of housing services, they lower the cost of geographic sorting by income typically associated with exclusionary zoning and other landmarket imperfections. A direct consequence of this sorting process is that housing-related tax expenditures are concentrated on communities with the highest incomes and house values. These effects do not arise simply because of housing-tax policies alone, but rather from the interaction of these policies and other factors that affect local real estate markets, such as zoning or fixed housing capital stocks.

We present theory and evidence highlighting the role of natural amenities in neighborhood dynamics, suburbanization, and variation across cities in the persistence of the spatial distribution of income. Our model generates three predictions that we confirm using a novel database of consistent-boundary neighborhoods in U.S. metropolitan areas, 1880-2010, and spatial data for natural features such as coastlines and hills. First, persistent natural amenities anchor neighborhoods to high incomes over time. Second, downtown neighborhoods in coastal cities were less susceptible to the suburbanization of income in the mid-20th century. Third, naturally heterogeneous cities exhibit spatial distributions of income that are dynamically persistent.

Real Estate Economics, 2005

This article establishes a linkage between decadal changes in suburban population and the supply of suburban dwelling units. It then estimates an econometric supply-and-demand model for 317 U.S. suburban areas for the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s using the State of the Cities database. Suburban supply is more elastic than central city supply, with suburban estimates between +1.26 and +1.42. However, separate estimates by geographic region lead to supply elasticities of +0.89 for the northeastern quadrant of the United States and +1.86 for the remainder of the United States. This article addresses issues of population change and housing supply in U.S. suburbs. Central cities often have only limited opportunities for new construction, while surrounding suburbs "beyond Eight Mile Road" may have considerable vacant land to accommodate new employers and new residents. 1 This generalization, of course, oversimplifies. New Rochelle, NY; Evanston, IL; Brookline, MA; Royal Oak, MI; and Lakewood, OH, for example, were developed 100 or more years go. Many suburbs (Puentes and Orfield 2002) are fully built up, many have stopped growing or have experienced population losses, and some have problems of blight or poverty similar to central cities. This article establishes a linkage between decadal changes in suburban population and housing supply, differentiating between central cities and inner and outer suburban rings. It then estimates an econometric supply-and-demand model for 317 U.S. suburban areas for the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s using the State of the Cities database. With almost all suburban areas characterized by increasing housing stock and in general more buildable land than the central cities, one would expect suburban supply price elasticities to exceed those of central cities. Using a similar model, Goodman (2004) estimated dwelling unit price elasticities between +0.03 and

Journal of Urban Economics, 1983

While the monocentric urban models were once adequate for predicting the declining rent gradients for North American cities, the advent of a transportation system with major arteries such as turnpikes, thoroughfares and commuter rails has distorted the rent gradient for many cities. In this study we examine the rent (or value) gradient for the City of Philadelphia with special reference to the impact of two major urban thoroughfares on apartment values. We find that apartment values decline by approximately 2.2% and 3.8% per block from major thoroughfares, while holding distance to the CBD and standard variables constant. As to be expected, distance to the CBD still continues to exert a dominant influence on apartment values in spite of the impacts of the thoroughfares. The findings are consistent with Ôaxial growth theory.

We present theory and evidence highlighting the role of natural amenities in neighborhood dynamics, suburbanization, and variation across cities in the persistence of the spatial distribution of income. Our model generates three predictions that we confirm using a novel database of consistent-boundary neighborhoods in U.S. metropolitan areas, 1880-2010, and spatial data for natural features such as coastlines and hills. First, persistent natural amenities anchor neighborhoods to high incomes over time. Second, naturally heterogeneous cities exhibit persistent spatial distributions of income. Third, downtown neighborhoods in coastal cities were less susceptible to the widespread decentralization of income in the mid-20th century and experienced an increase in income more quickly after 1980.

Journal of Urban History, 1975

The second half of the twentieth century saw large-scale suburbanization in the United States, with the median share of residents who work in the same county where they live falling from 87 to 71 percent between 1970 and 2000. We introduce a new methodology for discriminating between the three leading explanations for this suburbanization (workplace attractiveness, residence attractiveness and bilateral commuting frictions). This methodology holds in the class of spatial models that are characterized by a structural gravity equation for commuting. We show that the increased openness of counties to commuting is mainly explained by reductions in bilateral commuting frictions, consistent with the expansion of the interstate highway network and the falling real cost of car ownership. We find that changes in workplace attractiveness and residence attractiveness are more important in explaining the observed shift in employment by workplace and employment by residence towards lower densities over time.

2009

The tyranny of distance in terms of its effect on median earnings and housing costs is examined for rural and urban US counties. First, we develop a series of distance metrics for an area's remoteness from multiple tiers of the urban hierarchy. Second, we consider geographical access of buyers and sellers through market potential measures typical of those used in empirical studies of the New Economic Geography.