Building subsidized low-income housing actually lifts property values in a neighborhood, contradicting NIMBY concerns
The wood frame of a new residential house.
A new peer-reviewed study of housing development in Chicago showed that putting up subsidized, affordable apartments—no matter whether they were in low- or high-income areas—didn’t tank housing values, and in fact, sometimes boosted them. The study scrutinized an astonishing 508 low-income projects built from 1997 to 2016 and 600,000 nearby home sales. One of the study’s authors says this is because private developers using the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program have a keen interest in building quality housing and providing good management.
