IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedpwp/87816.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Effects of Gentrification on Homeowners: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Lei Ding
  • Jackelyn Hwang

Abstract

A major overhaul of the property tax system in 2013 in the city of Philadelphia has generated significant variations in the amount of property taxes across properties. This exogenous policy shock provides a unique opportunity to identify the causal effects of gentrification, which is often accompanied by increased property values, on homeowners’ tax payment behavior and residential mobility. The analysis, based on a difference-in-differences framework, suggests that gentrification leads to a higher risk of delinquency on homeowners’ tax bills on average, but there was no sign of a large-scale departure of elderly or long-term homeowners in gentrifying neighborhoods within five years after adoption of the new policy. While tax delinquencies were somewhat inflated by appeals for reassessments, programs designed to provide tax relief for long-term homeowners help mitigate the risk of tax delinquencies and displacement. Findings from this study help researchers, policymakers, and practitioners better understand the mechanisms through which gentrification may impact long-term homeowners and the effectiveness of policies to mitigate these tax burdens and displacement.

Suggested Citation

  • Lei Ding & Jackelyn Hwang, 2020. "Effects of Gentrification on Homeowners: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," Working Papers 20-16, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
  • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedpwp:87816
    DOI: 10.21799/frbp.wp.2020.16
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.philadelphiafed.org/-/media/frbp/assets/working-papers/2020/wp20-16.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.21799/frbp.wp.2020.16?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ferreira, Fernando, 2010. "You can take it with you: Proposition 13 tax benefits, residential mobility, and willingness to pay for housing amenities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(9-10), pages 661-673, October.
    2. Ding, Lei & Hwang, Jackelyn & Divringi, Eileen, 2016. "Gentrification and residential mobility in Philadelphia," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 38-51.
    3. Shan, Hui, 2010. "Property taxes and elderly mobility," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 194-205, March.
    4. Ellen, Ingrid Gould & O'Regan, Katherine M., 2011. "How low income neighborhoods change: Entry, exit, and enhancement," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 89-97, March.
    5. Nada Wasi & Michelle J. White, 2005. "Property Tax Limitations and Mobility: The Lock-in Effect of California's Proposition 13," NBER Working Papers 11108, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alaina Barca & Lei Ding & Yulin Hou & David Schwegman, 2021. "Assessment Frequency and Equity of the Real Property Tax: Latest Evidence from Philadelphia," Working Papers 21-43, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ding, Lei & Hwang, Jackelyn, 2020. "Effects of gentrification on homeowners: Evidence from a natural experiment," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    2. Andrew Hanson, 2021. "Taxes and Economic Development: An Update on the State of the Economics Literature," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 35(3), pages 232-253, August.
    3. Liu, Shimeng & Yang, Xi, 2020. "Property tax limits and female labor supply: Evidence from the housing boom and bust," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    4. Francis Wong, 2024. "Taxing Homeowners Who Won’t Borrow," CESifo Working Paper Series 11185, CESifo.
    5. Elizabeth Delmelle & Isabelle Nilsson, 2020. "New rail transit stations and the out-migration of low-income residents," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(1), pages 134-151, January.
    6. Jeremy Auerbach & Christopher Blackburn & Hayley Barton & Amanda Meng & Ellen Zegura, 2020. "Coupling data science with community crowdsourcing for urban renewal policy analysis: An evaluation of Atlanta’s Anti-Displacement Tax Fund," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 47(6), pages 1081-1097, July.
    7. Ismail, Muhammad & Warsame, Abukar & Wilhelmsson, Mats, 2020. "Measuring Gentrification with Getis-Ord Statistics and Its Effect on Housing Prices in Neighboring Areas: The Case of Stockholm," Working Paper Series 20/19, Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Real Estate and Construction Management & Banking and Finance.
    8. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana, 2021. "Racial composition and trajectories of gentrification in the United States," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(13), pages 2721-2741, October.
    9. Julia Fonseca & Lu Liu, 2024. "Mortgage Lock‐In, Mobility, and Labor Reallocation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 79(6), pages 3729-3772, December.
    10. Karen Chapple & Ate Poorthuis & Matthew Zook & Eva Phillips, 2022. "Monitoring streets through tweets: Using user-generated geographic information to predict gentrification and displacement," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 49(2), pages 704-721, February.
    11. Ihlanfeldt, Keith R., 2011. "Do Caps on Increases in Assessed Values Create a Lock-in Effect? Evidence From Florida’s Amendment One," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 64(1), pages 8-25, March.
    12. Atuesta, Laura H. & Hewings, Geoffrey J.D., 2019. "Housing appreciation patterns in low-income neighborhoods: Exploring gentrification in Chicago," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 35-47.
    13. Haozhi Pan & Si Chen & Yizhao Gao & Brian Deal & Jinfang Liu, 2020. "An urban informatics approach to understanding residential mobility in Metro Chicago," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 47(8), pages 1456-1473, October.
    14. Taesoo Song & Karen Chapple, 2024. "Does gentrification constrain housing markets for low-income households? Evidence from household residential mobility in the New York and San Francisco metropolitan areas," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(13), pages 2603-2622, October.
    15. William H. Hoyt & Aaron Yelowitz, 2016. "Anticipated Property Tax Increases and the Timing of Home Sales: Evidence from Administrative Data," CESifo Working Paper Series 6264, CESifo.
    16. Shan, Hui, 2010. "Property taxes and elderly mobility," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 194-205, March.
    17. Skidmore, Mark & Ballard, Charles L. & Hodge, Timothy R., 2010. "Property Value Assessment Growth Limits and Redistribution of Property Tax Payments: Evidence From Michigan," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 63(3), pages 509-537, September.
    18. Cheung, Ron & Cunningham, Chris, 2011. "Who supports portable assessment caps: The role of lock-in, mobility and tax share," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 173-186, May.
    19. Bradley, Sebastien, 2018. "Assessment limits and timing of real estate transactions," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 360-372.
    20. Ferreira, Fernando, 2010. "You can take it with you: Proposition 13 tax benefits, residential mobility, and willingness to pay for housing amenities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(9-10), pages 661-673, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    gentrification; property tax; tax delinquency; residential mobility;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
    • H71 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • R51 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Finance in Urban and Rural Economies

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedpwp:87816. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Beth Paul (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbphus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.