This study makes three contributions to the debate over the effect of local land use regulations on housing prices and affordability. First, it is more geographically extensive than previous studies, encompassing 336 of the nation's 384 metropolitan areas. Second, it looks at multiple measures of regulatory stringency, not just one. Most prior studies have focused either on a single regulatory measure or index across multiple metropolitan areas, or multiple regulatory measures in a single region. Third, this paper considers the connection between regulatory stringency and housing values as a function of employment growth and per-worker payroll levels. We find that restrictive land use regulations do indeed have a pervasive effect on local home values and rents, and that these effects are magnified in faster-growing and more prosperous economies. We also find more restrictive land use regulations are not associated with faster rates of recent home value or rent growth, and that their effects on housing construction levels—that is, the degree to which they constrain supply—is uneven among different housing markets.

本研究对当地土地使用法规对房价和负担能力的影响的辩论做出了三个贡献。首先，它的地理范围比以前的研究更广泛，涵盖了全国 384 个大都市区中的 336 个。其次，它着眼于监管严格性的多种衡量标准，而不仅仅是一种衡量标准。大多数先前的研究要么集中在多个大都市区的单一监管措施或指数上，要么集中在单个地区的多个监管措施上。第三，本文将监管严格性与住房价值之间的联系视为就业增长和人均工资水平的函数。我们发现限制性土地使用法规确实对当地房屋价值和租金产生普遍影响，并且这些影响在增长更快、更繁荣的经济体中被放大。我们还发现，更严格的土地使用法规与近期房屋价值或租金增长的更快速度无关，并且它们对住房建设水平的影响——即它们限制供应的程度——在不同的住房市场之间是不均衡的。