Silver Bullet or Trojan Horse? The Effects of Inclusionary Zoning on Local Housing Markets
Many local governments are adopting inclusionary zoning (IZ) as a means of producing affordable housing without direct public subsidies. In this paper, we use panel data on IZ in the San Francisco metropolitan area and Suburban Boston to analyze how much affordable housing the programs produce and how IZ affects the prices and production of market-rate housing. The amount of affordable housing produced under IZ has been modest and depends primarily on how long IZ has been in place. Results from Suburban Boston provide some evidence that IZ has contributed to increased housing prices and lower rates of production. In the San Francisco area, there is no evidence of a statistically significant effect of IZ on housing prices or production.