Urban Housing Rehabilitation and Move Decisions

Recent changes in federal housing policy have motivated new debate over the proper role of government in the housing industry. Policies that affect decisions to renovate and improve housing units are included in the debate. These policies include government expenditures on loans for residential improvement, local public services, and community development activities. Major aims of these policies are to motivate revitalization in some neighborhoods and retard decline in other neighborhoods. One concern in this regard is how individual investment decisions are determined. Another concern is which household benefit and which households bear costs due to investment in housing capital in a neighborhood. The purpose of this study is to apply a model of rehabilitation investment in existing housing capital to enable examination of these concerns. The model is applied to households in single-family, owner-occupied, detached housing units. Previous studies of rehabilitation and maintenance decisions include those of Dildine