Chapter 9

Housing, neighborhood, and environmental priorities were transformed in the late seventies by events of the decade. An upsurge in new construction had brought steady, nearly universally diffused improvements in the housing stock. But by 1980, the record high costs of shelter threatened to erode living and housing standards. Rising costs had uneven, inequitable effects. Low-income renters bore the brunt of inflation, while high-income homeowners benefited most from real estate windfalls and a federal, tax-code tilt toward homeownership. The rental stock in mature, northern cities was further decimated by out-migration. The outward trek, selective by race and class, accelerated in the seventies, sharpening neighborhood polarities and isolating minorities and dependent, female-headed households. Scattered, low-density developments also impeded housing, energy, and environmental conservation efforts. Social and demographic changes had fueled an enormous pent-up demand for housing, fed by the huge baby-boom generation and the mushrooming of small, adult households. But as America entered the eighties, the postwar, steady, upward trajectory of change may have passed its peak.