Zoning Reforms Slow to Benefit Renters

Households seeking lower-cost rental housing units are not seeing housing supply go up as quickly as higher-income families after upzoning

Zoning Reforms Slow to Benefit Renters
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Read the article at Planetizen by Diana Ionescu
excerpt:
“An Urban Institute study of zoning reforms in more than 1,000 cities found that low-income renters are the slowest to experience the benefits of zoning changes and an increased housing supply, whose units are concentrated at the higher end of the spectrum, reports Molly Bolan in Route Fifty.
“That’s not to say updating land-use regulations aren’t beneficial to households across the income spectrum, the report notes. The supply change for less expensive units is positive but isn’t significant enough to be definitively a direct result of zoning reforms.” But “By building higher-cost units, higher-income households can leave older buildings which are then available to lower-income families in a process known as ‘filtering.’”
Meanwhile, “The study also found that cities that tightened restrictions saw median rents go up in the years following implementation.”

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