{"id":1530,"date":"2008-02-14T12:58:11","date_gmt":"2008-02-14T20:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2008\/02\/14\/detailed-study-of-land-use-regulations-home-prices\/"},"modified":"2010-10-27T21:31:11","modified_gmt":"2010-10-28T04:31:11","slug":"detailed-study-of-land-use-regulations-home-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seattlebubble.com\/blog\/2008\/02\/14\/detailed-study-of-land-use-regulations-home-prices\/","title":{"rendered":"Detailed Study of Land Use Regulations & Home Prices"},"content":{"rendered":"

The big local housing story today is a study that was released recently by University of Washington Economics professor Theo Eicher. The thrilling title of the study is “Municipal and Statewide Land Use Regulations and Housing Prices Across 250 Major US Cities,” and it may be found (along with a number of related materials) here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rather than just quote the news articles<\/a> about the study, let’s take a look at the study directly for ourselves. Unfortunately, most of the study is exactly what you would expect from a university economics professor: lots of confusing terminology and complicated math concepts. I’ll do my best to accurately summarize his findings here.<\/p>\n

Before we get started, two important factors should be noted. First, that according to the Times write-up, Mr. Eicher “received no outside funding for the project.” So there is no basis to suspect he was influenced toward a specific conclusion by any particular outside interests. Second, the study focuses only on “owner-occupied” housing within the actual city limits.<\/p>\n

Here’s the question Mr. Eicher attempts to answer with his study:<\/p>\n

What drives the change in housing prices?<\/em>
\nOr: Did housing prices increase because of land use restrictions and\/or income\/population growth?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In order to answer that, he breaks down the components that affect housing price growth in any given city into the following:<\/p>\n