Who Bears the Burden of Development Impact Fees?

Abstract Abstract We theorize how the real estate market will respond to development impact fees. We look at the effects of impact fees on residential and nonresidential real estate under different supply and demand relationships and in the short term and long term. We examine prices that developers, homebuyers, and landowners pay or receive. We also explore how impact fees affect the distribution of development among communities in metropolitan areas. We conclude, on the whole, that neither developers nor landowners will bear the major burden of paying impact fees. Rather, consumers—homebuyers, renters, or nonresidential tenants—will pay the major share of development impact fees in the long term.