Understanding The Dynamics Of Urban Change

The relationship between new housing construction and household growth is a fundamental factor in understanding why some central cities lose population and others suffer from a tight housing market.

January 12, 2004, 8am PST | Abhijeet Chavan | @legalaidtech

"The 1990s were an unusual decade in the recent history of American cities." Unparalled economic expansion combined with favourable financial conditions helped the country to grow by over 13.5 million households and to produce 13.2 million new building permits over the decade. The rapid pace of this growth led to regional mismatches between housing supply and demand: housing prices soared on the coasts and metropolitan areas grew rapidly in the south, southwest, and west. This paper examines building permits and household change on a regional basis. The impact of regional imbalances on central cities are examined for select metropolitan areas. Policy implications for regional planning agencies (typically MPO's) are also discussed. [Editors note: this page contains a link to the full report in PDF format (176 KB).]

Thanks to Zvi Leve

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Vacating the City: An Analysis of New Homes vs. Household Growth

Published on Saturday, December 20, 2003 in The Brookings Institution