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The market price of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits

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  • Eriksen, Michael D.

Abstract

The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program awards a subsidy to private developers who construct and operate housing units with income-targeted rent controls for at least 15 years. The program allocated $6.6 billion to developers in 2006, and over 1.6 million units have been subsidized under the program since its inception in 1987. A historical literature suggests place-based housing subsidies, such as the LIHTC program, will be more expensive in providing the same level of housing support to the poor than tenant-based strategies (i.e., housing vouchers). This paper uses an administrative data series of LIHTC subsidized properties in California to show the program encourages developers to construct housing units that are an estimated 20% more expensive per square foot than average industry estimates. It is additionally shown that due to liquidity constraints faced by LIHTC primary developers in how the subsidy is allocated, virtually all developers sell the tax credits at a substantial discount below their statutory value immediately after construction. This price is estimated to be $0.73 per $1 of tax credit, or $1.8 billion annually, as compared to alternatively allocating a lump sum grant to developers.

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  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:juecon:v:66:y:2009:i:2:p:141-149
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    1. Desai, Mihir & Dharmapala, Dhammika & Singhal, Monica, 2008. "Investable Tax Credits: The Case of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit," Working Paper Series rwp08-035, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    2. Bree J. Lang & Pratish Patel, 2023. "Funding infrastructure under uncertainty: evidence from tax credit prices," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 30(3), pages 635-677, June.
    3. Eriksen, Michael D. & Rosenthal, Stuart S., 2010. "Crowd out effects of place-based subsidized rental housing: New evidence from the LIHTC program," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(11-12), pages 953-966, 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. Mihir Desai & Dhammika Dharmapala & Monica Singhal, 2010. "Tax Incentives for Affordable Housing: The Low Income Housing Tax Credit," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 24, pages 181-205, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Stuart S. Rosenthal, 2014. "Are Private Markets and Filtering a Viable Source of Low-Income Housing? Estimates from a "Repeat Income" Model," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(2), pages 687-706, February.
    7. McMillen, Daniel & Singh, Ruchi, 2020. "Fair market rent and the distribution of rents in Los Angeles," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    8. Matthew Klesta & Frank Manzo & Francisca Richter & Mark S. Sniderman, 2013. "Low-income-rental-housing programs in the Fourth District," Working Papers (Old Series) 1311, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
    9. 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.
    10. Robert Haveman & Barbara Wolfe, 2012. "Long-Term Effects of Public Low-Income Housing Vouchers: Work, Neighborhood, Family Composition and Childcare Usage," CEPR Discussion Papers 667, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    11. Marion Steele & Francois Des Rosiers, 2009. "Building Affordable Rental Housing in Unaffordable Cities: A Canadian Low-Income Housing Tax Credit," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 289, May.
    12. Freedman, Matthew & Owens, Emily G., 2011. "Low-income housing development and crime," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 115-131.
    13. Liu, Liyi & McManus, Doug & Yannopoulos, Elias, 2022. "Geographic and temporal variation in housing filtering rates," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    14. 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).
    15. 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.
    16. 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.
    17. Carlson, Deven & Haveman, Robert & Kaplan, Tom & Wolfe, Barbara, 2012. "Long-term earnings and employment effects of housing voucher receipt," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 128-150.

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