Search Results
Journal Article
How Will Affordable Rental Housing Be Preserved?
Affordable rental housing for low- and moderate-income individuals and families is increasingly scarce. Housing finance agencies, nonprofits, and policymakers agree that existing affordable rental housing must be preserved despite formidable complex obstacles in achieving this goal. This article focuses on challenges in rental housing preservation and discusses the programs and perspectives of the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency (PHFA), the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (HMFA), and the Delaware State Housing Authority (DSHA).
What Are the Long-run Trade-offs of Rent-Control Policies?
While rent-control policies can mean more affordable housing for some, research shows they can also lead to a decline in the supply and quality of rental housing.
Journal Article
Capital for Communities: Preserving Affordable Rental Housing Through a Nonprofit Real Estate Investment Trust
Housing affordability is essential for neighborhood revitalization and social and economic mobility alike, but affordable housing units continue to be limited as demand for them climbs. In cities throughout the country, including Philadelphia, market forces in gentrifying neighborhoods place the affordability of many housing units at risk. This article will explore the Housing Partnership Equity Trust (HPET), a nonprofit real estate investment trust (REIT) that utilizes private capital to acquire, preserve, and improve affordable rental housing units across the country
Report
Affordability and Availability of Rental Housing in the Third Federal Reserve District: 2012
Using the most recent data available, this suite of materials provides information on rental housing affordability conditions and trends in the Third Federal Reserve District from 2005 through 2010. This analysis not only explores the proportion of renters in the Third District with a housing cost burden but also investigates whether there are sufficient numbers of affordable rental units to meet the needs of low-income households. See "Affordability and Availability of Rental Housing in the Third Federal Reserve District: 2012" for the Cascade Focus PDF summarizing findings for the Third ...
Working Paper
Large-Scale Buy-to-Rent Investors in the Single-Family Housing Market: The Emergence of a New Asset Class?
In 2012, several large firms began purchasing single-family homes with the stated intention of creating large portfolios of rental property. We present the first systematic evidence on how this new investor activity differs from that of other investors in the housing market. Many aspects of buy-to-rent investor behavior are consistent with holding property for rent rather than reselling quickly. Additionally, the large size of these investors imparts a few important advantages. In the short run, this investment activity appears to have supported house prices in the areas where it is ...
Journal Article
New-Tenant Rent Passthrough and the Future of Rent Inflation
New-tenant rent inflation rose sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic, subsequently falling. Concomitantly, consumer price index (CPI) tenant rent, which measures rent increases for both new and continuing renters, rose more gradually and, after falling somewhat, has remained elevated. To illustrate why CPI rent inflation has remained elevated, we combine a measure of new-tenant rents and annual renter mobility rates to create a simulated CPI tenant rent inflation measure. We use this simulation to define a “rent gap” that represents the difference between actual CPI tenant rent inflation ...
Report
Gentrification and Changes in the Stock of Low-Cost Rental Housing in Philadelphia, 2000 to 2014
Philadelphia has experienced increased rental housing affordability challenges in recent years, especially in neighborhoods that have undergone gentrification. This report explores one aspect of gentrification?s impact on housing costs by examining its association with changes in Philadelphia?s stock of units that rent for less than $750 per month. Using tract-level U.S. Census Bureau data, this report finds that, between 2000 and 2014, the city lost one out of five units with rents that fell below this cost threshold. These losses were especially acute in gentrifying neighborhoods, as these ...
Journal Article
Can Monetary Policy Tame Rent Inflation?
Rent inflation has surged since early 2021. Because the cost of housing is an important component of total U.S. consumer spending, high rent inflation has contributed to elevated levels of overall inflation. Evidence suggests that, as monetary policy tightening cools housing markets, it can also reduce rent inflation, although this tends to adjust relatively slowly. A policy tightening equivalent to a 1 percentage point increase in the federal funds rate could reduce rent inflation as much as 3.2 percentage points over 2½ years.
Working Paper
Air Pollution and Rent Prices: Evidence from Wildfire Smoke Plumes
We leverage quasi-experimental wildfire smoke shocks to analyze the causal effect of air pollution (PM2.5) on rent prices, using satellite-based smoke plumes data and ambient air pollution data. Our results indicate that the rent of homes that are not directly affected by wildfires but exposed to wildfire plumes declines by about -2.4% per one standard deviation increase in PM2.5. The response of home prices is more than threefold highlighting a gap in the tolerance of poor air quality, which we find is driven by age-related differences between tenants and homeowners. We further show evidence ...
Report
Affordability and Availability of Rental Housing in the Third Federal Reserve District: 2015
In the aftermath of the foreclosure crisis and subsequent tightening of mortgage credit, many households have turned to the rental housing market, increasing pressure on an already limited supply of low-cost units. Using the most recent data available, this issue of Cascade Focus analyzes trends in rental housing affordability in the Third Federal Reserve District between 2007 and 2012. In addition to examining rates of housing cost burden for low-income renter households, this analysis evaluates whether the supply of affordable rental units is sufficient to meet the need. Lastly, this report ...