The objectives of this research are to assess whether residents of scattered site housing units expressed greater satisfaction with their homes and neighborhoods and recorded higher scores of well being relative to residents living in an aggregate public housing development. (More)

The recent, dramatic declines in house prices have drawn attention to our ability to forecast house prices. In this essay, I directly address two questions: 1) could econometric forecasts have predicted the recent downturn in house prices before any declines in house prices were actually observed; and 2) when did house price forecasts that predicted house price declines first warn us that a decline in house prices was imminent? (More)

The goal of my dissertation is to propose and test a comprehensive theoretical framework of the determinants of individuals' responses to changing environmental conditions and to pollution-induced declines in housing values. My research focuses on communities around Superfund sites as these sites undergo clean-up. (More)

This dissertation examines the implementation of the HOPE VI federal housing program at a specific site located in Washington, D.C. I utilized participant observation techniques recognized in the field of cultural anthropology, including semi-structured interviews, focus groups, library, and archival research, daily walks, and attending community meetings to guide this research. The site was 1 of the first 14 developments in the nation to receive a grant to demolish existing public housing structures and rebuild new mixed-income sites that resemble other neighboring homes to create seamless communities. (More)

This dissertation examines the utility of the multi-family housing sector on housing consumption and tenure choice by contrasting the various individual an market characteristics of the single-family housing sector. (More)

The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) was enacted in 1977 to encourage banks to reinvest into the low-to-moderate income (LMI) areas from which they received their deposits. I exploit an enforcement increase in 1989 to determine whether: 1) the CRA succeeded in increasing mortgage credit to targeted areas, 2) increased homeownership improves neighborhoods through decreased crime, and 3) compliance with the CRA affected bank profitability. (More)

In recent years, a growing number of international, national, state, and local initiatives have started working to make existing communities more aging friendly. This interest in changing the physical and social environment of existing communities to improve the health and well-being of older adults and help them age in place is a reaction to a confluence of factors, including the aging of the U.S. population, a projected increase in disability and chronic disease in future cohorts of older adults, and an inadequate long-term care system. Aging-friendly communities share three characteristics: Individuals can continue to pursue and enjoy interests and activities; supports are available so that individuals with functional disabilities can still meet their basic health and social needs; and older adults can develop new sources of fulfillment and engagement (Lehning, Chun, and Scharlach, 2007). Framed by an internal determinants and diffusion model, this study uses a sequential explanatory mixed-methods research design to explore: the extent to which 101 cities in 9 countries in a geographically and economically diverse metropolitan area have adopted aging-friendly policies, program, and infrastructure changes in the areas of community design, housing transportation, healthcare and supportive services, and opportunities for community engagement; and the diffusion factors, community characteristics, and government characteristics associated with such adoption. (More)

In recent years, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and urban policymakers have made significant changes to subsidized housing policy with the hopes of allowing low-income rental housing subsidy recipients access to better neighborhoods, revitalizing distressed neighborhoods, and/or deconcentrating poverty. Included in these changes are a shift in emphasis from the traditional public housing program to the Housing Choice Voucher program (HCV or "vouchers")--a demand-side subsidy that theoretically allows for greater neighborhood choice--and the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC)--a supply-side subsidy that offers tax credits to developers of low-income rental housing. (More)

Today in the United States 35 million households have one or more people with a disability, and aging baby boomers, injured soldiers returning from two protracted wars, and so forth, continue to build demand for the development of housing that maximizes independence for people with disabilities. On the 20th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), however, architects have only reluctantly accepted the code-mandated requirements for disabled access, perceiving them as both arcane and banal in ways that provoke anxiety and dampen creativity. This dissertation examines the architectural attitudes towards the human body that professional responses to mandated disabled access have revealed. In particular, it will focus on the role that architecture plays in constituting the category of disability. (More)

During this turn of the 21st Century a major shift has occurred in American poverty policy from simply providing material support and some job training to complex strategy of “transforming” the poor into self-reliant citizens by the means of poverty-to-work programs. (More)

This research examines relationships among residential satisfaction, mobility intentions and actual moving behavior based on a nationwide representative sample from the American Housing Survey and a four-year observation period (1985-89). (More)