IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v95y2005i2p323-328.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Regulation and the High Cost of Housing in California

Author

Listed:
  • John M. Quigley
  • Steven Raphael

Abstract

During the three-year period ending in July 2003, the rise in housing costs in California far exceeded the national inflation rate. Housing prices in five coastal counties increased by more than 60 percent. For the highest quintile of cities, prices increased by an average of more than thirty percent per year. Evidently California housing markets differ along important dimensions from those in the rest of the country. One striking difference is the degree of regulation governing land use and residential construction. California represents the most extreme example of autarky in land use regulations of any U.S. state. Cities are free to set their rules independently, with little oversight. Moreover, state tax policy creates incentives that are likely to decrease production an increase housing costs. Property taxes are constitutionally limited to one percent of acquisition costs while cities are permitted a share of local sales tax receipts. This creates a regulatory incentive to favor retail development over housing construction, to favor development of expensive housing over moderately priced housing, and to discourage the construction of housing. In this paper, we explore the linkages between land-use regulations, growth in the housing stock, and housing prices in California cities. First, we assess whether housing is more expensive in more regulated cities. Next, we assess whether growth in the housing stock over the period of a decade depends on the degree of land-use regulation at the start of the decade. Finally, we estimate the price elasticity of housing supply in regulated and relatively unregulated cities. Our results suggest that current regulations have powerful effects on housing outcomes.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • John M. Quigley & Steven Raphael, 2005. "Regulation and the High Cost of Housing in California," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(2), pages 323-328, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:95:y:2005:i:2:p:323-328
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/000282805774670293
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/000282805774670293
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephen Malpezzi, 1994. "Housing Prices, Externalities, and Regulation in U.S. Metropolitan Areas," Wisconsin-Madison CULER working papers 94-08, University of Wisconsin Center for Urban Land Economic Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Monkkonen, Paavo & Quigley, John M., 2008. "The Spatial Consequences of Autarky in Land-Use Regulation: Strategic Interaction or Parallelism?," Berkeley Program on Housing and Urban Policy, Working Paper Series qt69p752cd, Berkeley Program on Housing and Urban Policy.
    2. John M. Quigley & Steven Raphael & Larry A. Rosenthal, 2004. "Local Land-use Controls and Demographic Outcomes in a Booming Economy," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 41(2), pages 389-421, February.
    3. Christian A. L. Hilber & Christopher J. Mayer, 2004. "Why Do Households Without Children Support Local Public Schools?," NBER Working Papers 10804, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Jeffrey E. Zabel & Robert W. Paterson, 2006. "The Effects of Critical Habitat Designation on Housing Supply: An Analysis of California Housing Construction Activity," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(1), pages 67-95, February.
    5. David Albouy, 2009. "The Unequal Geographic Burden of Federal Taxation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 117(4), pages 635-667, August.
    6. Edward L. Glaeser & Joseph Gyourko & Raven E. Saks, 2006. "Urban growth and housing supply," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 6(1), pages 71-89, January.
    7. Beth Wilson & James Frew, 2007. "Apartment Rents and Locations in Portland, Oregon: 1992 – 2002," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 29(2), pages 201-218.
    8. Buckley, Robert M. & Kalarickal, Jerry, 2004. "Shelter strategies for the urban poor : idiosyncratic and successful, but hardly mysterious," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3427, The World Bank.
    9. Frederic S. Mishkin, 2007. "Housing and the monetary transmission mechanism," Proceedings - Economic Policy Symposium - Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, pages 359-413.
    10. Robert W. Wassmer & Michelle C. Baass, 2006. "Does a more centralized urban form raise housing prices?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(2), pages 439-462.
    11. John Benjamin & G. Donald Jud & Daniel T. Winkler, 1998. "A Simultaneous Model and Empirical Test of the Demand and Supply of Retail Space," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 16(1), pages 1-14.
    12. Powell, Benjamin & Stringham, Edward, 2008. "Housing," MPRA Paper 25412, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Stuart A. Gabriel & Joe P. Mattey & William L. Wascher, 1999. "House price differentials and dynamics: evidence from the Los Angeles and San Francisco metropolitan areas," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, pages 3-22.
    14. Doina Chichernea & Norm Miller & Jeff Fisher & Bob White & Michael Sklarz, 2008. "ACross-Sectional Analysis of CapRates by MSA," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 30(3), pages 249-292.
    15. Zabel, Jeffrey & Dalton, Maurice, 2011. "The impact of minimum lot size regulations on house prices in Eastern Massachusetts," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 571-583.
    16. Hilber, Christian A.L. & Mayer, Christopher, 2009. "Why do households without children support local public schools? Linking house price capitalization to school spending," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 74-90, January.
    17. John M. Quigley & Steven Raphael, 2004. "Is Housing Unaffordable? Why Isn't It More Affordable?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 18(1), pages 191-214, Winter.
    18. Richard K. Green & Stephen Malpezzi & Stephen K. Mayo, 2005. "Metropolitan-Specific Estimates of the Price Elasticity of Supply of Housing, and Their Sources," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(2), pages 334-339, May.
    19. Darcy Rollins & Alicia Sasser & Robert Tannenwald & Bo Zhao, 2006. "The lack of affordable housing in New England: how big a problem?: why is it growing?: what are we doing about it?," New England Public Policy Center Working Paper 06-1, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    20. Aida Caldera Sánchez & Dan Andrews, 2011. "To Move or not to Move: What Drives Residential Mobility Rates in the OECD?," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 846, OECD Publishing.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:95:y:2005:i:2:p:323-328. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.