An Environmentalist’s Response to “Environmental Regulation and Housing Affordability”AbstractThis article examines ways in which the environmental and housing communities can work together toward their shared goal of "decent, affordable housing" and capitalize on their common origins and values while maintaining and enhancing environmental quality in developed areas nationwide. It refutes the interpretation of statistical data presented in Frank Braconi's article and emphasizes that the correlation between the imposition of environmental standards and increases in real housing prices seems to be small when the effects of shifting demographic patterns are added to the equation. The article suggests that the effect of environmental standards on housing costs may be further reduced through cooperative efforts by the environmental and housing communities to encourage officials to alleviate the cost burden for inner-city housing and sewer systems and to plan more carefully the siting of future housing developments.An Environmentalist’s Response to “Environmental Regulation and Housing Affordability” (*.pdf, 82 KB)
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