Housing affordability is an important component of economic development. It affects several levers for regional growth, including business formation, through wealth building and influencing entrepreneurship. Housing affordability also affects location decisions—of both labor and employers. These proceedings document findings from research presented at a conference titled “The Impact of Housing Affordability on Economic Development and Regional Labor Markets” sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. The analysis presented at the conference suggests that higher-cost housing can trigger productive workers to leave markets and may limit the ability of workers, especially African American workers, to enter the labor market. At the same time, large economic development projects can displace workers. Research suggests that land use regulation is a driver of housing affordability; typically, higher levels of regulation lead to higher costs. Also, the efforts of economic developers affect local policies, like regulation and zoning, to attract firms. Discussion at the conference suggested housing issues be more integral to economic development policy and that new and expanded measures of housing affordability be used to track affordability.

住房负担能力是经济发展的重要组成部分。它通过财富积累和影响创业来影响区域增长的几个杠杆，包括企业形成。住房负担能力也会影响劳动力和雇主的选址决策。这些会议记录记录了在亚特兰大联邦储备银行和 WE Upjohn 就业研究所主办的题为“住房负担能力对经济发展和区域劳动力市场的影响”的会议上提出的研究结果。会议上提出的分析表明，成本较高的住房会促使生产性工人离开市场，并可能限制工人，尤其是非裔美国工人进入劳动力市场的能力。同时，大型经济发展项目可以取代工人。研究表明，土地使用监管是住房负担能力的驱动因素；通常，更高水平的监管会导致更高的成本。此外，经济开发商的努力会影响地方政策，如监管和分区，以吸引企业。会议上的讨论表明，住房问题更成为经济发展政策不可或缺的一部分，并且应使用新的和扩大的住房负担能力衡量标准来跟踪负担能力。