What is the Relationship Between Housing Affordability and Density?

Does density cause higher housing prices? Can the private market supply low-income housing? What will it take to maintain housing affordability in successful, growing cities? Dan Bertolet seeks an answer to these questions in a piece for Citytank.

1 minute read

October 22, 2012, 5:00 AM PDT

By dan bertolet


"Housing affordability is a critical ingredient of sustainable development in cities, but also one of the most vexing challenges. Not surprisingly, it's also an issue that often gets tangled up in contention and misunderstanding. If we hope to accommodate growth in a sustainable fashion by creating dense, walkable, transit-rich urban centers that also have economic diversity, it seems we could all use a little Zen-like focus and clarity on what we're dealing with."

This post by Dan Bertolet seeks to identify a list of the essential principles governing housing affordability in densifying cities, with the goal of bringing clarity to the task of creating a win-win combination of density and affordability.

Thanks to Dan Bertolet

Monday, October 15, 2012 in Citytank

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