Metropolitan Housing Dynamics And Public Policy

As households accumulate wealth, they tend to buy bigger and more expensive homes, and these homes are often located farther out at the edges of metropolitan areas. This pull to the suburbs creates housing vacancies or less investment in homes located in central cities and older suburbs, which in turn, can further erode existing neighborhoods and push more families outward. The paper examines this homebuying and housing cycle in Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Columbus, Ohio metropolitan areas and offers a number of strategies that state and local leaders should take to help stem some of the negative effects of this pattern.