Guarding the Town Walls: Mechanisms and Motives for Restricting Multifamily Housing in Massachusetts

Jenny Schuetz

Real Estate Economics, 2008, vol. 36, issue 3, 555-586

Abstract: Local governments frequently restrict multifamily housing through a variety of zoning tools, which may reduce the ability of low‐income households to afford housing in desirable locations. In this article, I use a new and unusually rich data set on zoning in Massachusetts to test several hypotheses about why municipalities restrict multifamily housing. Under regulations adopted in the 1940s and 1950s, communities with more existing multifamily housing or governed by a city council zoned more leniently for multifamily housing. Beginning in the 1970s, the use of special permits increased and smaller, more affluent communities were more restrictive.

Date: 2008
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6229.2008.00222.x

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:reesec:v:36:y:2008:i:3:p:555-586

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=1080-8620

Access Statistics for this article

Real Estate Economics is currently edited by Crocker Liu, N. Edward Coulson and Walter Torous

More articles in Real Estate Economics from American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().