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Location incentives in the low-income housing tax credit: Are qualified census tracts necessary?

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  • Lang, Bree J.

Abstract

The low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) is the largest project-based housing subsidy in the United States. Within the program, private developers receive a subsidy in exchange for constructing apartment units that rent for a predetermined affordable rate. Because the subsidy requires apartment buildings to charge a lower rental rate, the opportunity cost of developing subsidized housing in a location is the market rent that a developer could have charged if he had not received the subsidy. This study characterizes how profit incentives motivate location decisions within the LIHTC program by showing that opportunity cost causes more LIHTC development in locations with low market rent. This result implies that additional financial incentives, like the qualified census tract, may not be necessary to promote construction of subsidized housing in low-rent areas.

Suggested Citation

  • Lang, Bree J., 2012. "Location incentives in the low-income housing tax credit: Are qualified census tracts necessary?," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 142-150.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhouse:v:21:y:2012:i:2:p:142-150
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhe.2012.04.002
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Gregory S. Burge, 2011. "Do Tenants Capture the Benefits from the Low‐Income Housing Tax Credit Program?," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 39(1), pages 71-96, March.
    2. Kevin Jewell, 2005. "The Poverty Concentration Implications of Housing Subsidies: A Cellular Automata Thought Experiment," Urban/Regional 0505009, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Kirk McClure, 2006. "The low‐income housing tax credit program goes mainstream and moves to the suburbs," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 419-446.
    4. Baum-Snow, Nathaniel & Marion, Justin, 2009. "The effects of low income housing tax credit developments on neighborhoods," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(5-6), pages 654-666, June.
    5. Malpezzi, Stephen & Vandell, Kerry, 2002. "Does the low-income housing tax credit increase the supply of housing?," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 360-380, December.
    6. Eriksen, Michael D., 2009. "The market price of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(2), pages 141-149, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Christian A. L. Hilber & Olivier Schoni, 2022. "Housing policy and affordable housing," CEP Occasional Papers 56, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    2. Ellen, Ingrid G. & Horn, Keren M. & O'Regan, Katherine M., 2016. "Poverty concentration and the Low Income Housing Tax Credit: Effects of siting and tenant composition," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 49-59.
    3. Jinat Jahan & Shima Hamidi, 2019. "A National Study on Transportation Affordability of HUD Housing Assistance Programs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-17, December.
    4. Lang, Bree J., 2015. "Input distortions in the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit: Evidence from building size," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 119-128.
    5. Eerola, Essi & Saarimaa, Tuukka, 2018. "Delivering affordable housing and neighborhood quality: A comparison of place- and tenant-based programs," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 44-54.
    6. Eriksen, Michael D., 2017. "Difficult Development Areas and the supply of subsidized housing," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 68-80.
    7. Eriksen, Michael D. & Lang, Bree J., 2020. "Overview and proposed reforms of the low-income housing tax credit program," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    8. Olsen, Edgar O. & Zabel, Jeffrey E., 2015. "US Housing Policy," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 887-986, Elsevier.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Rental housing; Location choice; Subsidies;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • L3 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise

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