The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Research Conference on Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing was held on April 22, 2004, in Washington, D.C.

As an integral part of the Department’s Affordable Communities Initiative, the conference assessed the state of regulatory barriers research to help the Department establish research priorities for overcoming regulatory barriers to affordable housing. Through a series of research papers, presenters discussed the limitations of the availability of affordable housing resulting from restrictive regulation of building construction, land use regulations, impact fees and exactions, environmental regulations, and administrative processes.

This publication includes the papers that were prepared for and delivered during the conference. The appendix includes discussant comments for several of the papers.