Response
to “The Effects of Land Use Regulation on the Price
of Housing: What Do We Know? What Can We Learn?” by
John M. Quigley and Larry A. Rosenthal
Housing prices in the United States are significantly higher
in some regions—notably
coastal California, New York City, Hawaii, and New England—than
they are elsewhere.
Quigley and Rosenthal have commendably collected and analyzed
the pertinent studies
that explore the possibility that these outcomes are partly
attributable to government land
use regulations, such as large-lot zoning and growth controls.
As the authors repeatedly
emphasize, these inquiries are methodologically challenging.
In particular, a well-designed
regulatory program may make a community more environmentally
attractive to consumers.
If it does, the upward movement in prices that follows adoption
of a regulation
may be partly or entirely attributable to a jump in demand,
not to constraints on supply.
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