IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/26587.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The (Non-) Effect of Opportunity Zones on Housing Prices

Author

Listed:
  • Jiafeng Chen
  • Edward L. Glaeser
  • David Wessel

Abstract

Will the Opportunity Zone program, America’s largest new place-based policy in decades, generate neighborhood change? We compare single-family housing price growth in Opportunity Zones with price growth in areas that were eligible but not included in the program. We also compare Opportunity Zones to their nearest geographic neighbors. All estimates rule out price impacts greater than 1.3 percentage points with 95% confidence, suggesting that, so far, home buyers don’t believe that this subsidy will generate major neighborhood change. Opportunity Zone status reduces prices in areas with little employment, perhaps because buyers think that subsidizing new investment will increase housing supply.

Suggested Citation

  • Jiafeng Chen & Edward L. Glaeser & David Wessel, 2019. "The (Non-) Effect of Opportunity Zones on Housing Prices," NBER Working Papers 26587, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26587
    Note: PE
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w26587.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Matias Busso & Patrick Kline, 2008. "Do Local Economic Development Programs Work? Evidence from the Federal Empowerment Zone Program," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1639, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    2. Alberto Abadie, 2005. "Semiparametric Difference-in-Differences Estimators," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(1), pages 1-19.
    3. Brantly Callaway & Pedro H. C. Sant'Anna, 2018. "Difference-in-Differences with Multiple Time Periods and an Application on the Minimum Wage and Employment," DETU Working Papers 1804, Department of Economics, Temple University.
    4. Callaway, Brantly & Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C., 2021. "Difference-in-Differences with multiple time periods," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 200-230.
    5. Neumark, David & Kolko, Jed, 2010. "Do enterprise zones create jobs? Evidence from California's enterprise zone program," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 1-19, July.
    6. Goodman-Bacon, Andrew, 2021. "Difference-in-differences with variation in treatment timing," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 254-277.
    7. Sun, Liyang & Abraham, Sarah, 2021. "Estimating dynamic treatment effects in event studies with heterogeneous treatment effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 175-199.
    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. Sylvain Chareyron & Florence Goffette-Nagot & Lucie Letrouit, 2019. "Impacts of a French urban renewal program on local housing markets," Post-Print halshs-02353718, HAL.
    2. Freedman, Matthew & Khanna, Shantanu & Neumark, David, 2023. "JUE Insight: The Impacts of Opportunity Zones on Zone Residents," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    3. James Alm & Trey Dronyk-Trosper & Sean Larkin, 2021. "In the land of OZ: designating opportunity zones," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 188(3), pages 503-523, September.
    4. Jiafeng Chen & Edward Glaeser & David Wessel, 2022. "JUE Insight: The (Non-)Effect of Opportunity Zones on Housing Prices," Papers 2204.06967, arXiv.org.
    5. Minjee Kim, 2022. "How do tax-based revitalisation policies affect urban property development? Evidence from Bronzeville, Chicago," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(5), pages 1031-1047, April.
    6. James Alm & Trey Dronyk‐Trosper & Sean Larkin, 2024. "Do opportunity zones create opportunities? The impact of opportunity zones on real estate prices," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 52(1), pages 214-238, January.
    7. Ashesh Rambachan & Jonathan Roth, 2020. "Design-Based Uncertainty for Quasi-Experiments," Papers 2008.00602, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2025.
    8. Chen, Jiafeng & Glaeser, Edward & Wessel, David, 2023. "JUE Insight: The (non-)effect of opportunity zones on housing prices," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    9. Cameron LAPOINT & Shogo SAKABE, 2021. "Place-Based Policies and the Geography of Corporate Investment," Discussion papers 21059, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    10. Margaret Frank, Mary & Hoopes, Jeffrey L. & Lester, Rebecca, 2022. "What determines where opportunity knocks? Political affiliation in the selection of Opportunity Zones," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).

    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. Chen, Jiafeng & Glaeser, Edward & Wessel, David, 2023. "JUE Insight: The (non-)effect of opportunity zones on housing prices," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    2. Eli Ben‐Michael & Avi Feller & Jesse Rothstein, 2022. "Synthetic controls with staggered adoption," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 84(2), pages 351-381, April.
    3. Jiafeng Chen & Edward Glaeser & David Wessel, 2022. "JUE Insight: The (Non-)Effect of Opportunity Zones on Housing Prices," Papers 2204.06967, arXiv.org.
    4. Athey, Susan & Imbens, Guido W., 2022. "Design-based analysis in Difference-In-Differences settings with staggered adoption," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 226(1), pages 62-79.
    5. Li, Daiyue & Jin, Yanhong & Cheng, Mingwang, 2024. "Unleashing the power of industrial robotics on firm productivity: Evidence from China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 224(C), pages 500-520.
    6. Clément de Chaisemartin & Xavier D'Haultfœuille, 2020. "Two-Way Fixed Effects Estimators with Heterogeneous Treatment Effects," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(9), pages 2964-2996, September.
    7. Mark Kattenberg & Bas Scheer & Jurre Thiel, 2023. "Causal forests with fixed effects for treatment effect heterogeneity in difference-in-differences," CPB Discussion Paper 452, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    8. Hans-Bernd Schaefer & Rok Spruk, 2024. "Islamic Law, Western European Law and the Roots of Middle East's Long Divergence: a Comparative Empirical Investigation (800-1600)," Papers 2401.14435, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2024.
    9. Freise, Diana & Schmitz, Hendrik & Westphal, Matthias, 2022. "Late-career unemployment and cognitive abilities," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    10. Melnik, Walter & Smyth, Andrew, 2024. "R&D tax credits and innovation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 236(C).
    11. Joan Costa‐Font & Nilesh Raut, 2025. "Long‐Term Care Partnership Effects on Medicaid and Private Insurance," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(6), pages 1171-1187, June.
    12. Landgraf, Steven W., 2023. "Measuring incumbent ISP response to municipal broadband opt-out referenda in Colorado," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(10).
    13. Dmitry Arkhangelsky & Guido Imbens, 2023. "Causal Models for Longitudinal and Panel Data: A Survey," Papers 2311.15458, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2024.
    14. Bruno Ferman, 2023. "Inference in difference‐in‐differences: How much should we trust in independent clusters?," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(3), pages 358-369, April.
    15. Chabé-Ferret, Sylvain & Reynaud, Arnaud & Tène, Eva, 2021. "Water Quality, Policy Diffusion Effects and Farmers’ Behavior," TSE Working Papers 21-1229, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    16. Roth, Jonathan & Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C. & Bilinski, Alyssa & Poe, John, 2023. "What’s trending in difference-in-differences? A synthesis of the recent econometrics literature," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 235(2), pages 2218-2244.
    17. Drolsbach, Chiara Patricia & Gail, Maximilian Maurice & Klotz, Phil-Adrian, 2023. "Pass-through of temporary fuel tax reductions: Evidence from Europe," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    18. Arne Henningsen & Guy Low & David Wuepper & Tobias Dalhaus & Hugo Storm & Dagim Belay & Stefan Hirsch, 2024. "Estimating Causal Effects with Observational Data: Guidelines for Agricultural and Applied Economists," IFRO Working Paper 2024/03, University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics.
    19. Jianfei Cao & Shirley Lu & Hang Wu, 2019. "Synthetic Control Inference for Staggered Adoption," Papers 1912.06320, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2025.
    20. Galindo-Silva, Hector & Tchuente, Guy, 2021. "Fighting for not-So-Religious souls: The role of religious competition in secular conflicts," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 127-152.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H73 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Interjurisdictional Differentials and Their Effects
    • R30 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - General
    • R38 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Government Policy
    • R58 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Regional Development Planning and Policy

    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:nbr:nberwo:26587. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.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.