Authors: G. Stacy Sirmans and David A. Macpherson

Start Page: 131
End Page: 156
Volume:11
Issue Number: 02
Year: 2003
Publication: Journal of Real Estate Literature

   
Abstract: Affordable housing encompasses a substantial body of literature on a number of issues
such as housing policy, affordable housing supply, barriers to homeownership, measuring affordability and housing goals. Some major conclusions from the literature are: (1) housing programs should be tailored to local housing conditions; (2) minorities and immigrants are less likely to be homeowners even after controlling for income; (3) the number one housing problem is the lack of affordable housing for extremely low-income households; (4) a major impediment to homeownership is a lack of home buying and credit knowledge; (5) a major affordability indicator is housing cost burden (proportion of income paying for housing); (6) pension investors reject affordable housing due to the low rate of return and too few projects; and (7) survey respondents are willing to live in housing built on cleaned-up brownfields.