How many of the nation’s households are using only electricity for household needs like heating and cooking varies widely by region and depends on climate, energy grids, state utility regulations, and local policies.
Age-related experiences such as retirement, new chronic health conditions, or changes in ability can strain already-precarious housing arrangements until they break.
Joint Center for Housing Studies
of Harvard University
Our Center strives to improve equitable access to decent, affordable homes in thriving communities and conducts rigorous research to advance policy and practice.
This paper shows how different housing submarkets are linked by residential vacancy chains – the series of moves across housing units initiated by the construction of new housing. Using administrative data on the residential histories of the U.S. population, we compare the characteristics of vacancies created by new suburban single-family homes to those created by new urban multifamily housing. Our results imply that new suburban housing supply has little effect on urban housing affordability or on the welfare of low-income urban households.
Manufactured housing holds promise as an affordable form of housing that could expand homeownership opportunities for low- and moderate-income households at a time when house value growth is outpacing income gains in markets across the country. This study features case studies of five organizations from the for-profit, nonprofit and public sectors that are leading efforts to expand the use of manufactured housing in markets where these homes have not been widely used.
