Rates of Return on Housing of Low‐and Moderate‐Income Owners

Abstract

While long‐term returns to capital invested in owner‐occupied housing have been competitive with other investment alternatives, no evidence exists on the market performance of the owner‐occupied housing in which low‐ and moderate‐income households would be most likely to invest. This article thus attempts to answer the question of whether the “affordable housing units” that are relevant to policy discussions concerning low‐ and moderate‐income homeownership have experienced different rates of price appreciation than have higher valued dwellings. The national file of the American Housing Survey is used to estimate appreciation rates by value class in representative U.S. housing markets. We find that for the period 1974 through 1983 appreciation rates for lower valued housing were generally about equal to those for higher valued housing.